Spectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison

184 Pages·2014·0.757 MB·English

by  Melanie Anderson

Spectrality in the novelS
of toni MorriSon

Spectrality in the Novels
of oni orrison
T M
Melanie r. anderSon
The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville
Copyright © 2013 by The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville.
All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America.
First Edition.
An earlier version of the section on Paradise in chapter three appeared as
“‘What would be on the other side?’ Spectrality and Spirit Work in Toni Morrison’s
Paradise” in African American Review 42.2 (Summer 2008).
LibRARy oF CongRESS CATALoging-in-PUbLiCATion DATA
Anderson, Melanie.
Spectrality in the novels of Toni Morrison / Melanie Anderson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSbn-13: 978-1-57233-980-4
iSbn-10: 1-57233-980-2
1. Morrison, Toni—Criticism and interpretation.
2. ghosts in literature.
3. Future life in literature.
i. Title.
PS3563.o8749Z537 2013
813'.54—dc23
2012026773
For my parents—Paul and Deborah Anderson
I think of ghosts and haunting as just being alert. If you are really
alert, then you see the life that exists beyond the life that is on top.
It’s not spooky, necessarily—might be, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s
something I relish, rather than run from.
Toni Morrison
interview on nPR, September 20, 2004
The latter [scholar] would finally be capable, beyond the opposition
between presence and non-presence, actuality and inactuality, life
and non-life, of thinking the possibility of the specter, the specter
as possibility.
Jacques Derrida
Specters of Marx
contentS
Acknowledgments ix
introduction
“What Does it Mean to Follow a ghost”
in Toni Morrison’s Fiction? 1
chapter 1
Spectral beginnings in The Bluest Eye and Sula 19
chapter 2
“Why not ghosts As Well?”
The Presence of the Spectral in Song of Solomon and Tar Baby 37
chapter 3
“What Would be on the other Side?”
History as a Spectral bridge in Beloved and Paradise 65
chapter 4
“The Specter as Possibility”:
ghostly narrators in Jazz and Love 101
chapter 5
“Slave. Free. i Last”:
Spectral Returns in A Mercy 131
Conclusion 145
notes 149
Works Cited 159
index 171

acknowledgMentS
i have many people to thank, even beyond those mentioned here. This
project began as my dissertation at the University of Mississippi, and dur-
ing those early stages, the J. L. and Diane Holloway Dissertation Fellowship
provided a respite from teaching and greatly expedited the writing process.
For reading drafts of this work, i first need to thank my former com-
mittee members at the University of Mississippi: Annette Trefzer, Ethel
young-Minor, benjamin F. Fisher, and Kirsten Dellinger. in particular, i
am grateful to Professors Fisher, Trefzer, and young-Minor for their encour-
agement from my original seeds of thought about spectrality and haunt-
ings to this project. in northern Kentucky and in oxford, Mississippi, i
have been blessed with excellent groups of friends who have been sup-
portive and inspirational. Among those, individuals who have provided
feedback on drafts of this manuscript include Jeff Stayton, gray Kane, Lisa
Kröger, Lorraine Dubuisson, Travis Montgomery, Matt Saye, Pip gordon,
Michaela St. John, and bethany Miller. i also wish to thank the readers
engaged by the University of Tennessee Press for their incisive comments
on the manuscript.
i have presented this material in various stages at several academic con-
ferences, and the feedback from those gatherings has been valuable. These
conferences include meetings of the Toni Morrison Society, the American
Literature Association, the South Central Modern Language Association,
the Society for the Study of Southern Literature, and the Mississippi
Philological Association. My students have helped to sharpen my thinking
on Morrison’s work when i have had the opportunity to teach it, and i have
especially valued the discussions of Beloved in my haunted literature classes.
This list would not be complete if i did not acknowledge the people
who influenced the course of my life toward academe. When i was an
undergraduate at Thomas More College, James Schuttemeyer introduced
me to the work of Toni Morrison through Song of Solomon; Sherry Cook
Stanforth assigned Beloved in a memorable “American novels” class; and
Sister Colleen Dillon served spectacularly in her roles as teacher and a dvisor.