Lecture notes
Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
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- The University Of Stirling (UoS)
Analysis of The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
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That Toni Morrison- The Bluest EyeIn this session on Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, we turn to the postmodern
American novel and examine the various forms of textual experimentation in
the narrative. We will focus on Morrison’s representations of interpolation,
otherness and violence.
Readings used-4
https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2016/jan/11/the-bluest-eye-t
oni-morrison-review
https://www.lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-flowers-are-we-watering-on-blac
k-girls-and-the-bluest-eyes-enduring-resonance/
https://thegeorgeanne.com/32756/inkwell/banned-books-week-the-bluest-eye-
by-toni-morrison-review/
https://www.artsatl.org/review-synchronicitys-the-bluest-eye-an-unblinking-loo
k-at-the-roots-of-self-hate/
Discuss the representations of gender, sexuality and race in Toni Morrison’s
The Bluest Eye.
JOURNAL ARTICLE The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and Class in
Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" Paul Douglas Mahaffey
Mahaffey, Paul Douglas. “The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and
Class in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Race, Gender & Class 11, no. 4
(2004): 155–65. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43496824.
● In describing the happy family of Dick and Jane, Morrison gradually removes
grammatical indications of normalcy like punctuation and capitalisation. ‘This
disruption parallels the chaos and fragmentation of the Breedloves when they are
compared to other Black families.’
● ‘A community that has internalised the dominant cultures racist ideas of a superior
goodness associated with whiteness .’
● ‘Pecola's misery over her blackness and thus her ugliness originates in her family's
perception of themselves.’
● ‘She is unable to develop any type of racial consciousness that could counteract the
degrading influence of a dominant racist society.’
, ● The sisters' curiosity shows how a ‘a critically inquiring nature is essential to the
positive identity development of a black adolescent female.’
● ‘Pecola is not mentally conditioned to recognise and articulate the idea that
whiteness has its flaws.’
● ‘Two diametrically opposed means of constructing racial identity.’
● ‘She presents a remedy to that intra-racism in the form of the MacTeer sisters who
confront and challenge the assumed superiority of whiteness.’
JOURNAL ARTICLE Racism and Appearance in The Bluest Eye: A
Template for an Ethical Emotive Criticism
Bump, Jerome. “Racism and Appearance in The Bluest Eye: A Template
for an Ethical Emotive Criticism.” College Literature 37, no. 2 (2010):
147–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20749587.
● ‘Anger and hatred are not enough to fight racism not only because they often
miss their targets, but also because they are secondary emotions, driven in
turn by fear and shame.’
● ‘Morrison focuses on ugliness to enable white readers to feel something of
what it is like to be judged by racial hierarchies of skin colour and the master
and family narratives that reinforce them.’
● ‘The shame of sexual abuse in that family is central but so is the fear of
ugliness.’
JOURNAL ARTICLE Seeds in Hard Ground: Black Girlhood in The Bluest
Eye
● ‘Communication is a hierarchically structured one way transmission.’
● ‘The novel's radical repudiation of colorism as Afro-American fiction is rife
with light-skinned heroines.’
● ‘Because being dark meant never being considered beautiful, being other
became a canonical part of black women's literature.’
● ‘The Bluest Eye consists of a stipulative definition which radically redefines
beauty.’
● ‘Claudia’s ability to survive intact and to consolidate an identity derives from
her vigorous opposition to the colorist attitudes of her community.’
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