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Author Nittle, Nadra, author.

Title Toni Morrison's spiritual vision : faith, folktales, and feminism in her life and literature / Nadra Nittle.

Publication Info. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2021
©2021

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Manchester, Main Library - New Materials  813.54 NITTLE    Check Shelf
Description 192 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-184) and index.
Contents Black, Christian, and feminist : Toni Morrison's village literature -- A magical Black heritage -- Black and Catholic : a long tradition -- Sula's deconstruction of the Madonna, the whore, and the witch -- The folklore and holy women of Song of Solomon and Beloved -- Paradise's Black Madonna and Afro-Catholicism -- A literary legacy of resilience.
Summary "When Toni Morrison died in August 2019, she was widely remembered for her contributions to literature as an African American woman, an identity she wore proudly. Morrison was clear that she wrote from a Black, female perspective and for others who shared her identity. But just as much as she was an African American writer, Toni Morrison was a woman of faith. Morrison filled her novels with biblical allusions, magic, folktales, and liberated women, largely because Christianity, African American folk magic, and powerful women defined her own life. She grew up with family members who could interpret dreams, predict the future, see ghosts, and go about their business. Her relatives, particularly her mother, were good storytellers, and her family's oral tradition included ghost stories and African American folktales. But her family was also Christian. As a child, Morrison converted to Catholicism and chose a baptismal name that truly became her own--Anthony, from St. Anthony of Padua--going from Chloe to Toni. Morrison embraced both Catholicism and the occult as a child and, later, as a writer. She was deeply religious, and her spirituality included the Bible, the paranormal, and the folktales she heard as a child. Toni Morrison's Spiritual Vision unpacks this oft-ignored, but essential, element of Toni Morrison's work--her religion--and in so doing, gives readers a deeper, richer understanding of her life and her writing. In its pages, Nadra Nittle remembers and understands Morrison for all of who she was: a writer, a Black woman, and a person of complex faith. As Nittle's wide-ranging, deep exploration of Morrison's oeuvre reveals, to fully understand the writing of Toni Morrison one must also understand the role of religion and spirituality in her life and literature."-- Publisher's website
Subject Morrison, Toni -- Criticism and interpretation.
Morrison, Toni -- Religion.
African American women authors -- Criticism and interpretation.
African American women novelists -- Criticism and interpretation.
African American women -- Race identity.
African American women -- Spiritual life.
Religion in literature.
Criticism.
Morrison, Toni https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJymvHmTFRDGy9C8fFx7HC (OCoLC)fst00062028
Religion in literature (OCoLC)fst01732559
Criticism (OCoLC)fst00883735
African American women -- Race identity (OCoLC)fst00799463
African American women novelists (OCoLC)fst00799510
African American women authors (OCoLC)fst00799477
Religion (OCoLC)fst01093763
Genre/Form Criticism.
Criticism, interpretation, etc. (OCoLC)fst01411635
Other Form: Online version: Nittle, Nadra. Toni Morrison's spiritual vision. Minneapolis, Minnesota : Fortress Press, [2021] 9781506471525 (OCoLC)1259588639
ISBN 150647151X (paperback)
9781506471518 (paperback)
1506471528 (eBook)
9781506471525 (eBook)
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