Toni Morrison (b. 1931)

A selective list of literary criticism for African American novelist Toni Morrison, including signed articles by recognized scholars, peer and editor reviewed articles, and web sites that follow MLA guidelines for web pages.

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introduction & literary criticism

Transcript of an interview with Toni Morrison by Elizabeth Farnsworth on the PBS Newshour, March 9, 1998

The Toni Morrison page at the Nobel Prize web site contains a brief biography and her 1993 Nobel Prize acceptance lecture

A short, light article on Toni Morrison from the Boston Globe newspaper

A Teacher's Guide to Toni Morrison, from textbook publisher Heath

Chandler, Marilyn. A complete book-length critical study, Dwelling in the Text: Houses in American Fiction (U of California P 1991). "What is a house? And what can architecture tell us about individual psychology, national character and aspiration? The house holds a central place in American mythology, as Marilyn Chandler demonstrates in a series of 'house tours' through American novels." Contains chapters on Thoreau's Walden; Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"; Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables; James's The Portrait of a Lady; Chopin's The Awakening; Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper; Wharton's The Age of Innocence; Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby; Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!; Postwar Suburban Fiction; Mary Robinson's Housekeeping; and Toni Morrison's Beloved. California Digital Library

Coonradt, Nicole M. "To Be Loved: Amy Denver and Human Need-Bridges to Understanding in Toni Morrison's Beloved." College Literature, Fall 2005. "Studying Amy Denver not as a minor character, but one of greater importance than heretofore accorded, this essay posits her as one of Morrison's "bridges" to deeper understanding in Beloved."

Jimoh, A Yemisi. An introduction to Toni Morrison from the Literary Encyclopedia, 25 October 2002. On The Bluest Eye (1970); Sula (1973); Jazz (1992); Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992); Paradise (1998) [subscription service].

Macpherson, Heidi Slettedahl. New Visions of Community in Contemporary American Fiction: Tan, Kingsolver, Castillo, Morrison. [Michael, Magali Cornier. New visions of community in contemporary American fiction: Tan, Kingsolver, Castillo, Morrison; American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism]. Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 26, 2 (Fall 2007)

Knadler, Stephen. "Domestic violence in the Harlem Renaissance: remaking the record in Nella Larsen's Passing and Toni Morrison's Jazz." African American Review 38, 1 (Spring 2004) 98-118 [first page only, blurred, jstor].

Rayson, Ann. "Foreign Exotic or Domestic Drudge? The African American Woman in Quicksand and Tar Baby' [and Nella Larsen]. MELUS 23, 2 (Summer 1998) [sub ser, questia].

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