Signifyin(g) upon Tony Morrison's Postblackness

"Signifyin(g) upon Toni Morrison's Postblackness" is a collection of academic texts on the novels of African-American novelist Toni Morrison, who has been awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize of Literature. Her novels - The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby - are critically discussed under the auspices of three distinct concepts: Negriceness, Negritude and Negriticeness. These concepts work as theoretical attempts to measure both interracial and intrarracial proximity of the novels' major characters with both black and white cultural worlds and values. Thus, regarding The Bluest Eye, its Pecola Breedlove is studied from the perspective of Negriceness, which explains her wish to possess blue eyes. Concerning Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead is evaluated from the point of view of Negritude, which justifies a personal search for his family's ancestors and the legend of the flying slave, in the Southern US. Finally, as for the gaze of Negriticeness, Tar Baby's Jadine Childs associates her double-voiced blackness with her life between both the black Childs and the white Streets. In the end, Morrison's postblackness signifies upon the sum of all our blacknesses.

Autorentext

José Endoença Martins, poeta, romancista e crítico literário afro-brasileiro, publicou obras de poesia, contos, ensaios e pesquisa. Possui dois doutorados, um em Estudos Literários e outro em Estudos da Tradução. Professor aposentasdo, pesquisa os contratraportes do capitalismo de palatormas sobre assuntos negros.

Klappentext

"Signifyin(g) upon Toni Morrison's Postblackness" is a collection of academic texts on the novels of African-American novelist Toni Morrison, who has been awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize of Literature. Her novels - The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby - are critically discussed under the auspices of three distinct concepts: Negriceness, Negritude and Negriticeness. These concepts work as theoretical attempts to measure both interracial and intrarracial proximity of the novels' major characters with both black and white cultural worlds and values. Thus, regarding The Bluest Eye, its Pecola Breedlove is studied from the perspective of Negriceness, which explains her wish to possess blue eyes. Concerning Song of Solomon, Milkman Dead is evaluated from the point of view of Negritude, which justifies a personal search for his family's ancestors and the legend of the flying slave, in the Southern US. Finally, as for the gaze of Negriticeness, Tar Baby's Jadine Childs associates her double-voiced blackness with her life between both the black Childs and the white Streets. In the end, Morrison's postblackness signifies upon the sum of all our blacknesses.