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Postmodernism literary theory
Postmodernist theory in literature
Discuss the black community in Toni Morrison's novel jazz
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Challenging existing perceptions of narrative authority is a common writing practice amongst authors. While Morrison works to reassess the role of the narrative voice, she does so in an unconventional manner. In her novel Jazz, Morrison draws attention to the unreliability of the narrator through her1 inconsistency and bias. Morrison's flawed narrator helps connect her book to postmodernist African-American themes. By restructuring the narrative role within the book, Morrison makes her book Jazz a postmodernist text.
Morrison initially creates an unreliable narrator through the inconsistency of the narrative voice. Because Morrison does not reveal the identity of the narrator until the end of the novel, everything known about her prior is revealed through her “personality” that comes through in the telling of the story. The acquainting process is complicated by the continual shift in the narrative personality. Frequently, the narrator speaks from the perspective of a communal voice, but also shifts into a more personal register. In one of her rare breaks into a more personal tone, the narrator explains “People say I should come out more”, but this one of the few times she speaks about any sort of relationship to other people ( Morrison 7). Usually, the narrator adopts an omnipresent, removed persona. The breaking of this persona throughout the novel contributes to an unpredictable way that the narrator has of presenting herself in relationship to the text. There are other variances in the narrative personality outside of persona changes. Much like the inconsistency of the narrative style in the story, the narrator frequently changes mood and the way she relates to the characters. Because of the discordant attitudes of the narrat...
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...nd biased, which drastically affects the way the story is both told and read. Morrison challenges the conventional narrator, which links her text to postmodernist thought. Finally, when Morrison assigns the identity of the book to the narrator, she links the narrative style of the book itself to African-American and postmodern culture.
Work Cited
"Discover the Story of EnglishMore than 600,000 Words, over a Thousand Years." Home : Oxford English Dictionary. Web. 19 Mar. 2012. .
Dubey, Madhu. "The Postmodern Moment in Black Literary and Cultural Studies." Signs and Cities: Black Literary Postmodernism. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2003. Print.
Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Plume, 1993. Print.
West, Cornel. "Nihilism in Black America." Black Popular Culture. By Gina Dent and Michele Wallace. Seattle: Bay, 1992. 37-47. Print.
It's not just about telling the story; it's about involving the reader. we (you, the reader, and I, the author) come together to make this book, to feel this experience" (Tate 125). But Morrison also indicates in each of her novels that images of the zero, the absence, the silence that is both chosen and enforced, are ideologically and politically revelatory. Morrison's male characters imagine themselves in flight and are almost all in love with airplanes. . In the tradition of black literature since Richard Wright's Native Son, however, the privilege of flight, at least in airplanes, is mostly reserved for white boys.
While most fictional characters are given a voice with which to express themselves, that voice usually does not stray beyond their realm of fiction and therefore is restricted from the power of the real world. The imaginary black man that Susan Smith falsely claimed had abducted her children in 1994, however, existed in reality in the minds of the American public for nine days until the truth surfaced about her infanticide. Cornelius Eady’s poetry cycle, Brutal Imagination, serves to give that imaginary black man (hereafter referred to as Zero), a voice that draws power from his simultaneous existence in both the real and fictional realms.
Mat Johnsons novel, Pym challenges readers not only to view his work with a new set of eyes but also the work of all American literature with the understanding that the idea of Whiteness still has a very strong power over literature today. It is unfortunate that in today’s society, the pathology of Whiteness still holds a very strong presence in literary world. Literature from American authors versus literature from African American authors still continues to be segregated and handled with two different sets of criteria. Johnson’s novel engages in different aspects of the argument presented in Toni Morrison’s work entitled Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. One of the main ideals that Pym engages in is the thought that “…a figuration of impenetrable whiteness … surfaces in American literature whenever Africanist presence is engaged” (29). Through the character Chris Jaynes, Johnson’s novel focuses much attention on the Whiteness seen in the literary world and how it still affects literature today. Mat Johnson’s Pym addresses Morrison’s argument by challenging the reader to identify the pathology of whiteness as well as encourages readers not to only identify the problem but try to find new ways to combat it.
Davis, Cynthia A. "Self, Society, and Myth in Toni Morrison's Fiction." Contemporary Literature 23.3 (1982)
Narrative is a form of writing used by writers to convey their experiences to an audience. James Baldwin is a renowned author for bringing his experience to literature. He grew up Harlem in the 1940’s and 1950’s, a crucial point in history for America due to the escalading conflict between people of different races marked by the race riots of Harlem and Detroit. This environment that Baldwin grew up in inspires and influences him to write the narrative “Notes of a Native Son,” which is based on his experience with racism and the Jim-Crow Laws. The narrative is about his father and his influence on Baldwin’s life, which he analyzes and compares to his own experiences. When Baldwin comes into contact with the harshness of America, he realizes the problems and conflicts he runs into are the same his father faced, and that they will have the same affect on him as they did his father.
Narrative attitude has a large impact on the way a novel reads. It is what makes the reader feel for the narrator, connect to the story, and experience the words on the page in a moving and profound way. However, in James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the narrator appears to not be emotional in order to focus the reader’s attention on the real purpose of the novel.
It is important to not that the direction of Brooks’s literary career shifted dramatically in the late 1960’s. While attending a black writers’ conference she was struck by the passion of the young poets. Before this happened, she had regarded herself as essentially a universalist, who happened to be black. After the conference, she shifted from writing about her poems about black people and life to writing for the black population.
In the story, “Recitatif,” Toni Morrison uses vague signs and traits to create Roberta and Twyla’s racial identity to show how the characters relationship is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison wants the reader’s to face their racial preconceptions and stereotypical assumptions. Racial identity in “Recitatif,” is most clear through the author’s use of traits that are linked to vague stereotypes, views on racial tension, intelligence, or ones physical appearance. Toni Morrison provides specific social and historical descriptions of the two girls to make readers question the way that stereotypes affect our understanding of a character. The uncertainties about racial identity of the characters causes the reader to become pre-occupied with assigning a race to a specific character based merely upon the associations and stereotypes that the reader creates based on the clues given by Morrison throughout the story. Morrison accomplishes this through the relationship between Twyla and Roberta, the role of Maggie, and questioning race and racial stereotypes of the characters. Throughout the story, Roberta and Twyla meet throughout five distinct moments that shapes their friendship by racial differences.
Morrison shows readers a side of American History rarely seen. She shows the deepness of prejudice and how many different ways it has effected people. While she does this she also tells a story of soul searching, Milkman tries to find himself among many people who are confused and ate up by hate and prejudice. In the end, he is able to find who he is and where he stands on all of the issues that are going on around him. When he gets this understanding Milkman retrieves, and achieves his childhood dream of flying.
... It should be understood that Morrison's novel is filled with many characters and many examples of racism and sexism and the foundations for such beliefs in the black community. Every character is the victim or aggressor of racism or sexism in all its forms. Morrison succeeds in shedding light on the racism and sexism the black community had to endure on top of racism and sexism outside of the community. She shows that racism and sexism affect everyone's preconceived notions regarding race and gender and how powerful and prevalent the notions are.
Toni Morrison does not use any words she doesn’t need to. She narrates the story plainly and simply, with just a touch of bleak sadness. Her language has an uncommon power because of this; her matter-of-factness makes her story seem more real. The shocking unexpectedness of the one-sentence anecdotes she includes makes the reader think about what she says. With this unusual style, Morrison’s novel has an enthralling intensity that is found in few other places
Johnson, Anne Janette. “Toni Morrison.” Black Contemporary Authors; A Selection from Contemporary Authors. Eds. Linda Metzger, et al. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc., 1989.411-416.
The narrator not only tells the story-perform, but also encourages the reader- the listener, to participate in the “performance”: “Talking to you and hearing you answer—that’s the kick”(Jazz, 229). If he could speak aloud, the narrator would “Say make me, remake me”(Jazz, 229) demands from the reader to be active, in the same way as jazz music demands its listeners to be active. For Toni Morrison, the creation process seems to be more important than the final product, and the same is with the Jazz musician, the only thing that counts is “that swing” in the final version. All things considered, Morrison succeeds in making her novel “jazzy”, as Jazz “breathes the rhythms, sounds, and cadences of jazz music, radiating the music’s central ideas, emotions, aural idiosyncrasies perhaps as well as written prose can”(Pici). Morrison took on “new tasks and new risks” but it was worth doing so, as ”the result is a writing style that has a unique mix of the musical, the magical, and the historical.”(www.enotes.com/
Her mother was a church-going woman and sang in the choir. Her mother didn’t work; she just stayed home and took care of the family. By being black, her parents faced lots of racism living in the south (1). Both of her parents had moved from the south to escape the racism and to find better opportunities. Living in an integrated neighborhood, Morrison did not become fully aware of racial divisions until her teens (2).
Watkins, Mel. "Interview with Toni Morrison." New York Times Book Review (11 September 1977): 50.