Toni Morrison and the natural world : an ecology of color / Anissa Janine Wardi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wardi, Anissa Janine, 1969- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019--Criticism and interpretation.

Morrison, Toni.

Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019.

African American authors--History and criticism.

African American authors.

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Criticism and interpretation.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

viii, 196 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2021]

Summary:

"Critics have routinely excluded African American literature from ecocritical inquiry despite the fact that the literary tradition has, from its inception, proved to be steeped in environmental concerns that address elements of the natural world and relate nature to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation labor, and nationhood. Toni Morrison's work is no exception. Toni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color is the first full-length ecocritical investigation of the Nobel Laureate's novels and brings to the fore an unequaled engagement between race and nature. Morrison's ecological consciousness holds that human geographies are enmeshed with nonhuman nature. It follows, then, that ecology, the branch of biology that studies how people relate to each other and their environment, is an apt framework for this book. The interrelationships and interactions between individuals and community, and between organisms and the biosphere are central to this analysis. They highlight that the human and nonhuman are part of a larger ecosystem of interfacings and transformations. Toni Morrison and the Natural World is organized by color, examining soil (brown) in The Bluest Eye and Paradise; plant life (green) in Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Home; bodies of water (blue) in Tar Baby and Love; and fire (orange) in Sula and God Help the Child. By providing a racially inflected reading of nature, Toni Morrison and the Natural World makes an important contribution to the field of environmental studies and provides a landmark for Morrison scholarship"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Brown Ecology And Fertility: Skin, Dirt, And Compost In Paradise And The Bluest Eye

2. Green Ecology And Healing: Botanical Life In Beloved, Home, And Song Of Solomon

3. Orange Ecology, Death, And Renewal: Fire, Ash, And Immolation In God Help The Child And Sula

4. Blue Ecology And Resistance: Islands, Swamps, And Ecotones In Tar Baby And Love.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Wardi, Anissa Janine, Toni Morrison and the natural world

ISBN:

9781496834164

149683416X

9781496834171

1496834178

OCLC:

1224516703