Recitatif (1983)

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (b.1931)

Winner of 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, first

African American to receive this prize
Born in Lorain, Ohio, basis for some of her fictional
settings
B.A., Howard Univ.; M.A., Cornell, thesis on Woolf
and Faulkner; taught at Howard Univ.
Editor for Random House publishers
Novels include The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1974),
Song of Solomon (1977), Beloved (1987), Jazz
(1992), Paradise (1988), Love (2003)

Toni Morrison (b.1931)

Criticism: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the

American Literary Imagination (1992)
Professor of Humanities at Princeton University
Themes: American race relations, history and
memory
Recitatif (1983) is Morrisons sole published short
story
A recitatif or recitative is a vocal style in which a
text is declaimed in the rhythm of natural speech
with slight melodic variation (American Heritage
College Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997). The story is
Twylas recitatif.

Doubles

Recitatif is a story of doubles, one black and

one white, but the reader cant say for sure
which is which
Similarities to Poes William Wilson: firstperson narration; early institutional
experience (school/orphanage); meetings at
intervals later in life; narrator is challenged
and hurt by the double

But Recitatif ends with their reconciliation

Doubles

Both are misfits in the orphanage: they dont

have beautiful dead parents in the sky
(2255); their mothers are alive:

Twylas mother dances late

Roberts is sick

Bad students:

Twyla couldnt remember things (2254)

Roberta cant read

Racial Ambiguity

2253 Roberta a girl from a whole other

race (but which?)
2254 like salt and pepper
2259 Everything is so easy for them. They
think they own the world
2262 how it was in those days: black
white
2262-65 bussing (to integrate schools
black & white): Twylas son Joseph is
getting bussed; but Robertas kids face the
same prospect

Historical Structure

(age 8 is
definite, later ages are estimates)
Twyla and Roberta meet at different ages, in
different settings:
at 8 (orphanage, 4 months)
at roughly 18-20 (Howard Johnsons on thruway
near Kingston, NY, August)

Twyla a nightshift waitress

Roberta passing through with two men, going to see
(Jimi) Hendrix, whom Twyla calls she
Roberta and men laugh at Twyla, dont say goodbye

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)

Historical Structure

at roughly 30-32 (Food Emporium, Newburgh, NY,

late June)

key to ages on page 2260: about 20 yrs after orphanage;

12 yrs after Howard Johnsons; Twylas son Joseph in
junior high school (about 12 yrs old)
Twyla married to James Benson, a fireman, with son
Joseph: middle class
Roberta married to Kenneth Norton, in computer industry:
wealthy--limo & servantsin a neighborhood full of
doctors and IBM executives (2259); 4 stepchildren

Historical Structure

At roughly 30-32 (Picket-lines, Fall)

Twyla, pro-bussing
Roberta, anti-bussing

I wonder what made me think you were different

I wonder what made me think you were different (2263)

Roberta betrays Twyla: refuses to help: no

receiving hand was there (2263)

Historical Structure

At roughly 30-32 (Picket lines, Fall)

Twylas and Robertas identities are defined in

relation to one another: Actually my sign didnt
make sense without Robertas (signs depend on
one another) (2264)

Later 30s (coffee shop, Christmas Eve);

Joseph in college (about 18)

Reconciliation, but Maggie issue still unresolved

Historical Structure

This story of doubles is suspended through

recent American history:

Race relations
Bussing (to integrate schools)
Computer industry
Changes in town of Newburgh, New York: once
upstate paradise, then half on welfare, with
new wealthy tech class working for IBM

Archetypal Structure

Easter (2255), Christmas (2265)

Story of Maggiea mute womanalso
partakes of archetypal structure: this is a
story of primal guilt which (like the story of
Adam and Eve) takes place in a garden, an
apple orchard

See 2254
gar girls (corruption of gargoyles, the evil stone
faces [2260]): associated with evil, like the
gargoyles of medieval Gothic cathedrals

Gargoyles, Notre Dame,

Paris

The Significance of Maggie:

Shifting memories/ shifting meanings:

Maggie fell (2245)

Maggie didnt fall, was knocked down (2261)
Twyla and Roberta both kicked Maggie, who
was black (2264)
Twyla didnt kick Maggie, but wanted to
(associated Maggie with her mother) (2265)
Roberta didnt kick Maggie, but wanted to
(associated Maggie with her own mother)
(2266)

Consumer Culture: name-brand

products, corporations, TV

shows,
pop
icons: The Wizard of Oz
Klondike ice
cream

bars
Tab
Yoo-Hoo
Chiclets
Elmers glue
IBM
A&P

The Price Is Right

The Brady Bunch
Jimi Hendrix

Setting

Recitatif takes place in impermanent, transient

settings. What effect or significance might this
feature of setting have?

Orphanage
Howard Johnsons
New shopping mall/parking lot
Picket lines
Coffee house

Conclusion

As doubles, Twyla and Roberta share an

uncomfortable past
Roberta challenges Twyla to remember parts of her
past Twyla prefers to forget
Reality and repressed desire get mixed up
In the present, they are one anothers racial and
class other
They collaborate to reconstruct their shared past
and bridge their differences of class and race

But what happened to Maggie?