Continuing Education Course Finder: ENGCS01-1a

A Tale To Pass On: The Canonization of Toni Morrison (ENGCS01-1a)

Status: Closed

Fee: $375.00

Timing: 10 sessions from October 8, 2009 - December 17, 2009 on Thursdays, 7:00pm-9:00pm no class 11/26

Course Description: In May 2006, the New York Times Book Review announced that Toni Morrison’s Beloved is “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.” Beloved was awarded this designation by no less than a sampling of two hundred writers, critics, editors, and other arbiters of American literary culture. In addition, Morrison has won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize, among other prestigious literary awards. There is also an academic literary society named in her honor, which convenes a conference on her work every two years. Toni Morrison has achieved what few living authors experience. One of the questions this class will ask is: how did this happen? In this course, we will closely read the most canonical novels from Toni Morrison’s work to examine how her writing has achieved iconic status and has become a part of the American literary canon.

This class will read The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved. Through Morrison’s writing, we will consider what it means to be an American and how we determine what is American literature. Some of the central questions we will ask are: how is love portrayed and developed? How are families and romantic relationships depicted? How are racial identity and American racial dynamics imagined? How is America imagined? Is what Morrison has to say about race still relevant after the election of America’s first African American president? Along with these questions, we will also consider Morrison’s popular reception.

This will be a fun and engaging class for persons who do not necessarily have prior exposure to African American literature but enjoying reading and talking about American literature.

Instructor(s): Jeannette Lee

Instructor(s) Bio: Jeannette M. E. Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at Brown University. She works at the intersection of African American and Caribbean literature and Gender and Sexuality studies. She is currently finishing her dissertation. Lee has taught American, African American and Caribbean literature and composition classes at Brown University and Hampshire College.