Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon A Casebook

by Furman, Jan

• ISBN13: 9780195146356
• ISBN10: 0195146352
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The essays in this volume represent the major currents in critical thinking about Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison's widely acclaimed examination of the individual quest for self-knowledge in the context of the African-American experience. This collection offers a broad overview of thescholarship that has emerged in the decades since the 1977 publication of Morrison's third novel. These essays provide a map of the primary themes of Song of Solomon, covering subjects such as self-identity, the rituals of manhood and reading, and the importance of naming, and also explore thenovel's incorporation of African myth and African-American folklore. The casebook opens with "The People Could Fly," the African folktale from which Song of Solomon draws important aspects of its plot and major theme, and closes with an interview with Toni Morrison about her life and work as anovelist.

Author Biography

Jan Furman is Associate Professor of English at the University of Michigan-Flint.

Table of Contents

Introduction	3	(18)
Jan Furman
People Who Could Fly	21	(6)
Julius Lester
Part I Quest for Identity
The Quest for and Discovery of Identity in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon	27	(16)
Valerie Smith
The South in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon: Initiation, Healing, and Home	43	(24)
Catherine Carr Lee
Part II Myth and Folklore
``Unruly and Let Loose'': Myth, Ideology, and Gender in Song of Solomon	67	(28)
Michael Awkward
Song of Solomon: Rejecting Rank's Monomyth and Feminism	95	(18)
Gerry Brenner
Part III Narrative Influence
Doe Hunting and Masculinity: Song of Solomon and Go Down, Moses	113	(24)
John N. Duvall
Civilizations Underneath: African Heritage as Cultural Discourse in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon	137	(28)
Gay Wilentz
Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon: A Blues Song	165	(20)
Joyce M. Wegs
Names to Bear Witness: The Theme and Tradition of Naming in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon	185	(16)
Lucinda H. Mackethan
Part IV Historical Perspectives
Dead Teachers: Rituals of Manhood and Rituals of Reading in Song of Solomon	201	(32)
Linda Krumholz
Part V An Interview
Toni Morrison: The Art of Fiction	233	(34)
Elissa Schappell
Chronology: African-American History, 1865--1977	267	(6)
Selected Bibliography	273