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25. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)

  • Christopher Schliephake
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Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is widely considered her highest literary achievement. Although it met with mixed reactions when it was first published, it was also regarded as a masterpiece early on and remains a key text of American literature. The controversy it stirred had to do with the subject matter of the book, namely the retelling of the slave experience from an African American viewpoint. Based on historical sources and material traces of the slave system, Beloved is about a run-away slave, Sethe, who kills one of her daughters when she is tracked down by slavecatchers. The novel takes this incident as the narrative nucleus around which the imaginative exploration of the dehumanizing and traumatizing effects of slavery revolve. Interweaving various timeframes, multiple perspectives, and evocative metaphors, Beloved is a novel about how memory can haunt the present and disrupt a community, and it asks whether regeneration is possible in the light of horrible historical experiences.

Abstract

Toni Morrison’s Beloved is widely considered her highest literary achievement. Although it met with mixed reactions when it was first published, it was also regarded as a masterpiece early on and remains a key text of American literature. The controversy it stirred had to do with the subject matter of the book, namely the retelling of the slave experience from an African American viewpoint. Based on historical sources and material traces of the slave system, Beloved is about a run-away slave, Sethe, who kills one of her daughters when she is tracked down by slavecatchers. The novel takes this incident as the narrative nucleus around which the imaginative exploration of the dehumanizing and traumatizing effects of slavery revolve. Interweaving various timeframes, multiple perspectives, and evocative metaphors, Beloved is a novel about how memory can haunt the present and disrupt a community, and it asks whether regeneration is possible in the light of horrible historical experiences.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Modernism 21
  7. 2. Postmodernism 35
  8. 3. Cultural Diversity 52
  9. 4. Intermediality 68
  10. 5. Inter-American Perspectives 84
  11. 6. The American Novel and the Marketplace 98
  12. 7. Futures of the American Novel 113
  13. Part II. Close Readings
  14. 8. Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903) 131
  15. 9. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918) 148
  16. 10. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 162
  17. 11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925) 177
  18. 12. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926) 192
  19. 13. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936) 206
  20. 14. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936) 222
  21. 15. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 237
  22. 16. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) 250
  23. 17. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946) 264
  24. 18. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 278
  25. 19. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952) 294
  26. 20. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) 308
  27. 21. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) 322
  28. 22. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977) 337
  29. 23. Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984) 351
  30. 24. Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985) 361
  31. 25. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) 374
  32. 26. Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997) 388
  33. 27. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) 401
  34. 28. Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006) 414
  35. 29. Louise Erdrich, The Round House (2012) 427
  36. Index of Subjects 443
  37. Index of Names 447
  38. List of Contributors 459
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110422429-027

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Editors’ Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. 0. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Systematic Questions
  6. 1. Modernism 21
  7. 2. Postmodernism 35
  8. 3. Cultural Diversity 52
  9. 4. Intermediality 68
  10. 5. Inter-American Perspectives 84
  11. 6. The American Novel and the Marketplace 98
  12. 7. Futures of the American Novel 113
  13. Part II. Close Readings
  14. 8. Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903) 131
  15. 9. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918) 148
  16. 10. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) 162
  17. 11. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925) 177
  18. 12. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926) 192
  19. 13. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936) 206
  20. 14. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936) 222
  21. 15. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 237
  22. 16. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) 250
  23. 17. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946) 264
  24. 18. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 278
  25. 19. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952) 294
  26. 20. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955) 308
  27. 21. Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) 322
  28. 22. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977) 337
  29. 23. Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street (1984) 351
  30. 24. Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985) 361
  31. 25. Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987) 374
  32. 26. Philip Roth, American Pastoral (1997) 388
  33. 27. Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2005) 401
  34. 28. Cormac McCarthy, The Road (2006) 414
  35. 29. Louise Erdrich, The Round House (2012) 427
  36. Index of Subjects 443
  37. Index of Names 447
  38. List of Contributors 459
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