ENGL 054. Toni Morrison

(Cross-listed as BLST 054)
As the recipient of numerous literary prizes (Nobel, Pulitzer, and National Book Critics Circle Award, to name a few), Toni Morrison was an author of international renown whose books routinely occupied a place on domestic and international best seller lists. Indeed, it is safe to say that her work transcended what many readers ascertain as “black writing” in the 21st Century. Her works consistently engaged the role memory, place, and community play in our lived experience. But how did Morrison understand her literary project in light of the fact that she eschewed the white gaze as a controlling motif in her fictions? In a moment when discussions about how-and sometimes, whether-we value Black bodies are happening all around us, this course offers us an opportunity to use the reading of Morrison’s novels as a catalyst for new ways to think not only about how we can occupy place, but happily cohabit with our neighbors whether they look like us, share our point of origin, or reflect our values. In the process, we will endeavor to become a learning community in which critical thinking, analysis, dialogue, and debate are central to developing inclusive methods of inquiry.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Eligible for BLST
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

Access the class schedule to search for sections.