Toni Morrison

1. Toni Morrison Reclaiming the dead girl in Toni Morrison’s Jazz

2. Basic Information • African American writer • Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, 1931 • Did not start writing for real until divorced • Needed to claim the “dead girl” inside • Has 9 novels published • 1993 Nobel prize in literature for Beloved • Issues: Political, historical, racial, postcolonial, women – how women displace themselves

3. “And so it looked as though the world was going by and I was not in that world. I used to live in this world, I mean really live in it. I knew it. I used to belong here. And at some point I didn’t belong here anymore. I was somebody’s parent, somebody’s this, somebody’s that, but there was no me in the world. And I was looking for that dead girl and I thought I might talk about that dead girl, if for no other reason than to have it, somewhere in the world, in a drawer […] I was everybody [her characters]. And as I began to do it […] I fell in love with myself. I reclaimed myself and the world” (Morrison 1985).

4. The Trilogy • Wrote a trilogy, Beloved, Jazz and Paradise • Theme: Love • Morrison was inspired by stories, articles and pictures • Main focus now: Jazz • Period: 1873 – 1926 – where Beloved leaves off • Love theme: Romantic love

5. Jazz • Nature versus the City (New York, Harlem) • Narrator • Violet and Joe Trace, Dorcas • Violet’s “cracks” -Violet and that Violet • Golden Grey - black and white • Generations of motherless mothers & daughters

6. Jazz • Destruction and healing -triangle • Slavery – aftermath • A connection between Beloved and Wild? • My take on Jazz: Postcolonial with focus on identity or loss of identity, the female experience • Reclaiming history/past

7. Jazz • Encourages the reader to participate –to read and re-read the story – to reclaim the past of every African American • Healing power of old and familiar love • Violet reclaiming the dead girl inside

8. Thankyou! Anyquestions?