ENG 320 February 19, 2016 (KOKUA)

First Q:
How does Morrison want us to read American literature?
Essay themesincluding poem
White supremacy (Colonial, settler mentality)
Racialist = group people together based on stereotypes
o Not only biological characteristics, but mental capacities/traits as
well
Becomes a problem when you begin ascribing negatives to
these biological characteristics
o Behaviors, morals
Essay equates the belief of race with the belief of witches
Does nothing to society besides harming
It basically is a social construct, but with very real consequences
o However ignoring it would ignore social constructions due to how
Race

& Nationality
Dominant literature comes from the perspective of the dominant race
Erases/changes history
Racist ideology perpetuated in literature
Reinforces stereotypes

National literature founded on racial superiority

Greater than minorities in comparison
Ethnic literary traditions are typically product of racism
Reading Tony Morrison
Look at history that leads up to book
What is being left out
Historical context
American literature based on presence of African Americans
o Founded on slavery
o Should not be able to hover on the margins of literary
imagination
American-Africanism = investigation in ways a non-white, Africanistic,
persona was constructed in the US
o Ideas about the shaping of Africans/African Americans in America
o What did it mean to be black? How did white Americans imagine
what it meant to be black?
Next class:

Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye