My thoughts about a racial book burning at a southern college–and how literature can help.
Tag Archives: Toni Morrison
Use Lit to Combat Racism
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged book burnings, Jennine Capo Crucet, Make Your Home Among Strangers, privilege, racism, Song of Solomon Comments closed
Trump’s Wall, Symbolic or Literal?
Monday Literature majors will find their training useful in understanding why Donald Trump has chosen to shut down the government. It has to do with the difference between the symbolic and the literal. A literal wall makes very little sense, with the $5.5 billion dollars that Trump is demanding from American taxpayers (not from Mexico) […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beloved, Donald Trump, magical realism, Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie, symbolic vs literal thinking, Trump's wall Comments closed
Lit as a Survival Toolkit
Thursday Friend and occasional guest blogger Carl Rosin alerted me to a heartfelt Commonweal article by an English professor describing how literature helped her confront and work through childhood abuse. Cassandra Nelson’s difficult history leads to some remarkable insights into trigger warnings, which she opposes. Nelson’s view on trigger warnings is pretty much my own […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bluest Eye, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Bruno Bettelheim, childhood trauma, Dante, Inferno, Junot Diaz, King Lear, sexual abuse, sexual assault, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The U.S. Open as a Toni Morrison Novel
The tempestuous match between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka reminded me of the Nel-Sula drama in Toni Morrison’s novel.
Comey vs. Trump, Two Alpha Dogs
James Comey is right to fight for American justice against Donald Trump but his male pride helped get Trump elected. Toni Morrison describes the dynamics in “Song of Solomon.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, FBI, FBI Russia investigation, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton's e-mails, James Comey, Song of Solomon Comments closed
Magical Realism’s Special Powers
Magical realism defined and its significance discussed.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 100 Years of Solitude, Beloved, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Gunter Grass, Haruki Marakami, magical realism, Tin Drum, Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Comments closed
Like Sula, Trump Unites Old Opponents
Trump has brought liberals and center-right Republicans together in a way resembling how Sula unites the town in Toni Morrison’s novel. So what will happen after Trump leaves the stage.
Lit for Survivors Lost in a Dark Wood
Monday Commonweal recently published a heartfelt article by West Point visiting English professor Cassandra Nelson on how literature can help trauma survivors recover. Nelson begins with an angry comment about a University of Chicago dean’s facile dismissal of trigger warnings, even though she herself opposes them. She, however, speaks from the vantage point of one […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Bluest Eye, Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Child Abuse, Dante, Inferno, Junot Diaz, PTSD, trauma, trigger warnings Comments closed
Surrendering to the Air
As I zip-lined in the Smokies, I thought of the concluding paragraph of Toni Morrison’s “Song of Solomon.”
