Morrison's latest contribution to world literature is a dissertation on racism; it’s origin, usability and detriments. "The Origin of Others" traces the construction of racism and how it permeates all aspects of American institutions and worldwide consciousness. Central to Morrison's critique is the denunciation of the misinformed notion that multiple races - i.e. whiteness and blackness - is a scientific fact (there is only one race – the human race). As the essays deconstructs the formulation of racism readers are exposed to how racism equates to power/control and the ends to which governments, institutions and individuals will go to maintain those benefits.
"The Origins of Others" is a perfect way to initiate discussions on racism. Book Clubs and classrooms will benefit significantly from the clarity provided this analysis. A bonus for this reader is Morrison's insight on how her body of work is primarily concerned with the exploration of racism and color-ism throughout American history. This is a highly recommended read that begs discussion and reflection.
America’s foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. Readers of Morrison’s fiction will welcome her discussions of some of her most celebrated books―Beloved, Paradise, and A Mercy.
If we learn racism by example, then literature plays an important part in the history of race in America, both negatively and positively. Morrison writes about nineteenth-century literary efforts to romance slavery, contrasting them with the scientific racism of Samuel Cartwright and the banal diaries of the plantation overseer and slaveholder Thomas Thistlewood. She looks at configurations of blackness, notions of racial purity, and the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative. Expanding the scope of her concern, she also addresses globalization and the mass movement of peoples in this century. National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction to date.
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