Toni Morrison and The Bluest Eyeeeee.pdf

dfghfghdfghdfghdfg

1. Toni Morrison
and
The Bluest Eye

2. Toni Morrison
•Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford (Lorain, Ohio, 1931-2019)
•Author of eleven novels, two plays, libretto for an opera, two song cycles, nine
children’s books and critical essays (Playing in the Dark).
•First African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Nobel
Prize Lecture
•Awarded with the Pulitzer for her novel Beloved(1987)
•More about the author in the article “Understanding Toni Morrison” (2014). See
e-platform (Article in File)
•Tribute volume to Toni Morrison (2022): https://feminismos.ua.es/issue/view/1038

3. “hernovelsare instrumentsfortransmittingcultural
knowledge, fillinga voidonce occupiedbystorytelling.
Theyreplace‘thoseclassical, mythological, archetypal
storiesthatweheardyearsago’” (5)
JanFurman, “UndestandingToni Morrison.” Toni Morrison'sFiction: Revised
and ExpandedEdition, Universityof South Carolina Press, 2014.

4. The Bluest Eye (1970)
•TheBluestEyeisbornoutoftheracialself-consciousnessofthe1960s.Readthe
Foreword/Afterword(dependingontheedition).YouhaveacopyonEV.
•Thenovelalsoevokestheadvantagesandliabilitiesthatblackmigrantsfromthe
SouthencounteredastheyadaptedtotheirnewlivesintheNorth(inthiscase,
Lorain,Ohio)duringthepostwarera.
•Senseofalienationismostpowerfullyexpressedintheformofracialself-loathing.
Projecteduponthemostvulnerablemembersoftheircommunity,inthiscasethe
youngPecolaBreedlove(11yearsold).
•Thetitle
•ContrastbetweentheBreedlovesandtheMacTeers.

5. Analysis and discussion
•Foreword
•Dick and Jane primer
•Narrators and point of view
•Structure
•Language
•Characters
•Themes

6. Foreword/Afterword -Discussion
*Depending on the edition, it will come at the beginning or end of the novel.
1.How did the idea of writing The Bluest Eye come into shape?
2.Discuss the concept of “racial self-loathing” / ”internalization” of
racism / “racial self-contempt”
3.Pecola’s “unique situation”
4.Form
5.Language
6.The opening phrase of the novel “Quiet as it is kept”

7. Quiet as it is kept…
“Theopeningprovidesthestrokethatannounces
somethingmore thana secretshared, buta silencebroken,
a voidfilled, anunspeakablethingspokenat last”
(Toni Morrison, “UnspeakableThingsUnspoken” 149) .

8. Quiet as it is kept
Kara Walker,
2019

9. Epigraph -Discussion
1.What is the purpose of the three Dick and Jane primary reader
passages?
2.What is the effect of the disintegrating punctuation in the third?
3.Who is the narrator in the italizedparagraph that comes after?
4.Explain the symbolism of the seeds
5.What is the effect of having such a tragedy disclosed right away?