Thematic Evaluation

Background Information

Beloved Discussion Forum

Annotated Bibliography

Other Interesting Links

Agatucci, Cora. "African Timelines: History, Orature, Literature, and Film."  Humanities 211: African Cultures and Literatures, Central Oregon Community College, Bend, OR, April 2002. 5 May 2002 <http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/timelines/htimelinetoc.htm> 

This web explores several facets of ancient Africa. It also gives a timeline of ancient African empires. Other links include an in-depth description of African slave trade and European imperialism in Africa. The web continues with a look at anti-imperialism and reconstruction in Africa. The web also has a link attached that discusses post-independence in the dark continent. It also contains links to other sources on the same or related subjects and an in-depth bibliography. 

Agatucci, Cora, and Christopher Wise. "Historical Review of African-American Literature."  Eds. Radhika Mohanram and Gita Rajan.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996. 133-43.

The authors of this article explain that "African-American literature differs from most postcolonial literatures in that it is written by members of a minority community who reside within a nation of vast wealth and military power" (135).  The fact is that those written about were, for the most part, people who were brought to American originally as "goods to be traded." The article is an in-depth exploration of novels that give voice to the African-American slave. The authors of the article go on to discuss stellar women writers such as Toni Morrison. 

This article would be of value to anyone interested in the difference between post-colonial novels, and those written by African-Americans, who speak with the voice of their own cultural  community. 

Alsen, Eberhard.  "Toni Morrison."  Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1999.  331-349.

This chapter gives a detailed account of the life and works of Toni Morrison.  In over 18 pages, Olsen describes Morrison's personal biography, her major works and their themes, and the way those works were received by critics.

This is a very useful resource for anyone interested in Toni Morrison.  It is comprehensive and leaves the reader with few, if any, unanswered questions.

Atwood, Margaret.  "Haunted by Their Nightmares."  Modern Critical Interpretations: Beloved.  Ed. Harold Bloom.  Philadelphia, PA:  Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.  5-9.

Becker, Eddie. "Chronology on the History of Slavery and Racism". (1999).  5 May. <http://www.innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html> 

This web presents a chronological history of both slavery and racism. It has links to various other pages discussing the history of both. The pages are separated into three main discussions categorized by years, as follows: 1619-1789, 1790-1829, and 1830-end. Each time period grouping is discussed at length with examples of important history making events included

This web would be of great value to anyone studying the history of both slavery and racism. 

Bloom, Harold, ed.  Modern Critical Interpretations:  Beloved.  Philadelphia, PA:  Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.

This book is a collection of critical evaluations of Beloved.  It includes papers written by fourteen different scholars.  In his introduction, Bloom writes about the power of the novel Beloved.  He says, "Of all Morrison's novels, it puzzles me most" (1).  Bloom is fascinated by the characters in Beloved, which he describes as "ideograms" (1). 

I've decided to narrowed my readings down to the following works:  "Haunted by Their Nightmares" by Margaret Atwood, "A Different Remembering:  Memory, History and Meaning in Toni Morrison's Beloved" by Marilyn Sanders Mobley, and "The Ghosts of Slavery: Historical Recovery in Toni Morrison's Beloved" by Linda Krumholz.  These chapters all appear to be directly related to the focus we've chosen for the Online Beloved Study Guide.

Bois, Danuta.  "Toni Morrison."  1996. Distinguished Women of Past and Present. 2 May 2002 <http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/morrison.html>
20 May 2002 
<http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html>

This web page begins with  an explanation of Morrison's receipt of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The author continues with a brief description of Morrison's years as a child. A tale of the author's younger aspirations to become a dancer follows. The next paragraph details the author's decision to change her name from Chloe Anthony Wofford to Toni Morrison. A history of the author's education and married life are then presented. Her career as an editor and writer are included in the following several paragraphs. The article is finishes with detailed description of the authors writing career.

This page would be found of interest to anyone investigating possible reasons behind the authors writing career. Morrison's history may hold insight into why and how she writes what she does. The text is clear, concise, and easy to read. There are several links in the page to sites that address other well known women who have contributed to the advancement of the black woman in America.  

Halsall, Paul. "Modern History Sourcebook: The Fugitive Slave Act, September 18, 1850" (1998) 18 May. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1850fugitive.html>

Hinson, Scot D. "Narrative and Community Crisis in Beloved." MELUS: [Special Issue] African American Literature 26.4 (2001). 147-167. 

Hinson uses this article to discuss the underlying violence present in the book Beloved as well as several other African American pieces of literature. He begins by pointing out that Beloved "teems with violence" (147). The author points out that the violence is "imposed from the outside by white oppressors, whose search fro scapegoats translates into a similar search within the black community" (147). The author then suggests that the black community does not recognize its own violence on its "weakest members" (148). Hinson suggest that when critically analyzing Beloved, a psychoanalytic narrative model is most appropriate. The author then looks at atrocities committed by whites during slavery as a major issue in Beloved. The crisis caused by violence in the community is then looked at as the author explores each major character in the book. 

This article would be of value to anyone curious about possible motives and techniques used in the writing of the book Beloved. The author writes about varying characters in the book, in detail, discussing their possible roles in the story behind the story. 

Hoffman, Brenda. "Historical Fiction Criticism & Evaluation." Accessed, 31 May 2002. < http://raven.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/histfic.htm>

Khayati, Abdellatif.  "Representation, Race, and the 'Language' of the Ineffable in Toni Morrison's Narrative."  African American Review 33 (Summer 1999): 313-324.  Rpt.  LookSmart - Gale Group - Thomson Corp., 2002.  9 May 2002.  
<http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2838/2_33/55577122/p1/article.jhtml>

See also "Toni Morrison (1931 - )," The Internet Public Library: Online Literary Criticism Collection.  9 May 2002
<http://www.ipl.org/cgi-bin/ref/litcrit/litcrit.out.pl?au=mor-80> 

This web page contains reprinted material from the African American Review summer issue of 1999, which addresses African American literature and its former lack of perspective. The author writes about Toni Morrison's ability to use a fictional story, based partly on fact, to discuss important political and ethical matters concerning the history of African American slaves. Morrison is quoted as saying, "My vulnerability would lie in romanticizing blackness rather than demonizing it; vilifying whiteness rather than reifying it."  Morrison is an artist seeking the truth about history from a Black American point of view. The author suggests Morrison does so brilliantly, leaving gaps in her writing to bring the reader to a place of better understanding of the slave's plight. 

This web-site would be of value to anyone seeking reasons and thoughts behind Morrison's writing. The author uses both Beloved and The Bluest Eye as examples to draw upon.

Koolish, Lynda. "To Be Loved and Cry Shame: A Psychological Reading of Toni Morrison's Beloved." MELUS: [Special Issue] African American Literature 26.4 (2001). 169-195.

The article begins by exploring several possibilities to the identity of the character Beloved in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved. It goes on to detail each characters response to the ghost like character. The author brings in a detailed explanation of what schizophrenia is as a means of explaining some of the characters response to Beloved. This is followed by an explanation of a healing process for this mental illness. The next section deals with the character Beloved herself and her possible symbolization of the passage on a slave ship. The following text deals with Sethe's and Beloved's possible connection. The author explains in psychological criticism's terms how Beloved may be seen as a part of Sethe's personality or psyche. Denver and Paul D's psychological  explanations for Beloved's appearance are also discussed. 

This article would be of value to anyone attempting to use psychological criticism as a means for exploring the novel Beloved. 

Krumholz, Linda.  "The Ghosts of Slavery:  HIstorical Recovery in Toni Morrison's Beloved."  Modern Critical Interpretations: Beloved.  Ed. Harold Bloom.  Philadelphia, PA:  Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.  79-95.

Malchow-Moller, Trine. "Filling in the Blanks: Historical Reconstruction in Beloved". BigApple. (2001). 13 May. <http://www2.domaindlx.com/bigapple/specials/toni3.asp>. 

The author of this web discusses the idea that Beloved is a historical fiction reconstructed. The author writes of the voice and narrative authority used in the novel. A section giving background on the Margaret Garner child murder case is presented. A second web page is used to discuss the idea that Morrison used a rewriting of the slave narrative to bring the reader closer to the reading. 

The web would be of value to anyone seeking reasons and techniques in the novel Beloved. 

---.  "Balancing Past and Present:  The Rewriting of History in Toni Morrison's Trilogy"  BigApple.  (2001).  <http://www2.domaindlx.com/bigapple/specials/toni2.asp>

Trine Malchow-Moller writes in this web that his view of Toni Morrison's trilogy: Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise is a clear example of historical fiction. He also writes that the trilogy is a combination of books of love. The author explains that he believes Morrison is reconstructing history. In the webs second section the author describes all three books as politically based. 

Anyone seeking ideas for exploring the reasons behind Morrison's three popular works would find this web of interest. The web is clearly written; however, there are pop up ads that can be pesky but close with ease. 

Mallon, Thomas. "History, Fiction, and the Burden of Truth." Writing History / Writing Fiction. 6 June. (2002). <http://www.albany.edu/history/hist_fict/Mallon/Mallons.htm> 

May, Samuel J.  "Margaret Garner and Seven Others."  Toni Morrison's Beloved:  A Casebook.  Eds. William L. Andrews and Nellie Y. McKay.  New York:  Oxford U.P., 1999.  25-36.

This chapter details the events leading up to and following the murder of a slave child by her mother Margaret Garner, which Toni Morrison's novel Beloved is based on.  Garner, her husband Simon Jr., their four children, and Simon's parents escaped from slavery on Sunday, January 27th, 1856.  They were found in a house in Ohio and, after the slaves refused to surrender, a battle ensued.  The runaway slaves were overcome by marshals who found a "nearly white child, bleeding to death" (26).  May writes, "the mother of the children... said that she had killed one and would like to kill the three others, rather than see them again reduced to slavery" (26).  May describes the accounts that followed, including all of the legal proceedings and accounts as recorded by various newspaper articles, court transcripts, and even extracts from religious sermons relating to the events.

The details presented in this chapter are remarkable and it is a very useful resource for the Beloved Study Guide, as background information.  It's easy to understand why this incident inspired Morrison to write Beloved.  It evokes many questions; such as, how could a mother do such a thing to her child?  What would it feel like to be a slave and a mother, knowing that your children can be sold away from you?  What would it be like being a daughter who never knew her mother.  Beloved in one woman's response to those questions.  

Mobley, Marilyn Sanders.  "A Different Remembering:  Memory, History, and Meaning in Toni Morrison's Beloved."  Modern Critical Interpretations: Beloved.  Ed. Harold Bloom.  Philadelphia, PA:  Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.  17-25.

Morrison, Toni.  Beloved.  New York:  Plume, 1998.

Beloved is a novel about an ex-slave, Sethe, who had to confront her past.  She killed a daughter, rather than have her taken back into slavery.  There are many themes in Morrison's novel.  The theme that millions upon millions of people died when they were kidnapped in Africa, died when they were transported like cargo across the Middle Passage, died in the institution of slavery, and died at the hands of white bigots even after slavery was abolished.  Another theme addresses the issue of what it means to be a human being, and how it feels to be treated like an animal.  There is also the theme of family, particularly how mothers adapted (or didn't adapt to) the fact that their children could be sold away from them, and children had to try to survive not having the most important relationship--the mother/child relationship.

The novel Beloved is amazing.  Morrison is a master at prose.  It is extremely difficult to select key passages for evaluation because the entire novel is a key passage.  Every phrase and every word is poignant and profound.  It is easy to understand why so many scholars and critics have written papers and books on Beloved.  It has not been difficult to find sources.  Other works by Toni Morrison include Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), and Paradise (1998).

Nutting, Elizabeth Lofgren. "Remembering the Disremembered: Toni Morrison as Benjamin's Storyteller." Schuylkill.  Accessed 28 May, 2002. <http://www.temple.edu/gradmag/fall97/nutting.htm>

Peterson, Nancy J.  "Toni Morrison and the Desire for a 'Genuine Black History Book."  Against Amnesia:  Contemporary Women Writers and the Crises of Historical Memory.  Philadelphia, PA:  University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.  51-97.

This chapter will be very useful as a resource for our project.  It addresses one of the issues we are discussing in Literary Genres:  What is historical fiction?  Beloved is an example of historical fiction because it is a novel conceived from an actual event; Margaret Garner's murder of her own child.  Morrison takes that event and fills in details relating to slavery that are left out of the history books.  Beloved is Morrison's attempt to reclaim African-American history and she is able to give her readers a sense of the circumstances that drove a woman to murder her daughter.

Sylvester, Melvin. "The Middle Passage." The African American a Journey from Slavery to Freedom. B. Davis Memorial Library.  Accessed 29 May, 2002. <http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aaslavry.htm#middle>

Toni Morrison Uncensored.  Ed. Jeune Pritchard.  Presenter Jana Wendt.  Films for the Humanities & Sciences. (1999). 

This thirty minute video production is an interview with Toni Morrison after the publication of Paradise.  Morrison describes how she feels about her position as an eminent African-American woman author, as well as her personal feelings regarding race relations.

It is an excellent resource.