In her essay “The Art of Fiction,” Toni Morrison notes that as a writer it is essential “to work very carefully with what is in-between words. What is not said…. [For, it is] what you don’t write that frequently gives what you do write its power” (90). In Beloved, a lot of material is suggested ‘between the spaces,’ a means through which Morrison asks the reader to participate in the narrative, to experience and to gather meaning, as it unfolds.
In “Giving Body to the Word: the Maternal Symbolic in Toni Morrison’s Beloved,” Jean Wyatt states: “In Beloved, Toni Morrison puts into words three orders of experience that Western cultural narratives leave out: childbirth and nursing from a mother’s perspective; the desires of a preverbal infant; and the sufferings of those destroyed by slavery, including the Africans who died on the slave ships” (474). For Wyatt, the “project of incorporating into a text subjects previously excluded from language,” not only gives voice to “unspeakable thoughts, unspoken,” but also articulates a means to confront loss and transform wounds from the past. As Amy Denver states in the novel: “Can’t nothing heal without pain” (Morrison 92).
As such, Morrison’s storytelling relies on memory and the recovery of the historical and personal past: the acts of repressing and recollecting traumatic memories imitate the experience (and recovery) of the main characters. As characters recall bits and pieces of their past and move toward healing, we, as readers, recall the memory of the ‘living’ text as we reconfigure our own understanding. What is it that we as readers learn, that we take away from the text?
The Assignment:
Using a definitive literary theory and/or combined approach (i.e. feminist/gender, historicist, psychological, African-American, Marxist), develop a critical argument that analyzes the theme of personal (psychic) and historical (cultural) trauma through notions of memory and healing, a double-movement that Morrison uses in the novel so that no one voice, perspective, or story assumes dominance. (We’ll discuss prompt topics in class as well as how to develop these into a critical focus.)
Although this paper relies on your own interpretation of the novel, you are required to incorporate four sources:
- Your primacy source/text, Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- One academic journal article on Beloved selected from a folder on our Blackboard Course Document page, entitled “Beloved: Critical Readings for Research Paper.”
- One academic journal article from a CUNY database such as Humanities Resource, Literature Resource Center, Project Muse, JSOR, e-brary, etc.
- A critical source that addresses the critical lens or the historical/cultural period you will discuss in your paper. If you select this source from a site other than CUNY, check with me for approval.
Your interpretation will revolve around your critical thesis as applied to the novel itself, but should develop in conversation with your sources. This paper requires that you engage your critical sources substantially, most especially your two academic journal articles, summarizing and paraphrasing main points, briefly quoting when appropriate and connecting key ideas from primary (Beloved) and secondary critical sources as a means to enrich your own interpretation. Direct quotes, however, should make up no more than 15% of your paper.
One of the most important aspects in writing your paper is to develop your own ‘voice.’ As with other papers begin your critical argument (or thesis) early on in your paper (at the end of your introduction) and develop your focus through key points or sub-arguments (topic sentences) in each paragraph in the body of your paper. Although you are incorporating additional sources that will add to the depth of your reading, these should not overwhelm your own interpretation and voice.
All sources must be cited in your paper (in-text citations) and on your Works Cited page using MLA format. Do not use academic journal sources obtained through the Internet, i.e. Google or some other search engine.
Prewriting due: December 5 and December 7 workshops for group work and individual conference (10 points). For December 5, complete prewriting on Bb and download, highlight, and read Linda Krumholz’s “The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” We’ll discuss this in depth in class (don’t be absent!).
Paper Format and Length: five to seven pages (1500-2000 words), double-spaced, typed, 12-point font, New Times Roman or Garamond, one-inch margins. Format your paper according to MLA guidelines (this counts toward your grade!)
Due Date and Paper Submission: December 12. For a letter grade, submit a typewritten copy in class and upload your paper to the Bb Assignment page.
Note: For your final project grade, hand in your typewritten paper with copies of notes, early drafts, peer review forms, highlighted copies of sources.
Works Cited
Morrison, Toni. “The Art of Fiction.” Paris Review 128, 1993, pp. 83-125. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1888/the-art-of-fiction-no-134-toni-morrison
_____. Beloved. 1987. Vintage Books, 2004.
Wyatt, Jean. “Giving Body to the Word: The Maternal Symbolic in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.”
PMLA, vol. 108. no. 3, May 1993, pp. 474-488. JSTOR. DOI: 10.2307/462616
