Smith - Toni Morrison Writing the Moral Imagination

Blackwell Introductions to Literature

This series sets out to provide concise and stimulating introductions to literary subjects. It offers books on major authors (from John Milton to James Joyce), as well as key periods and movements (from Old English literature to the contemporary). Coverage is also afforded to such specific topics as Arthurian Romance. All are written by outstanding scholars as texts to inspire newcomers and others: nonspecialists wishing to revisit a topic, or general readers. The prospective overall aim is to ground and prepare students and readers of whatever kind in their pursuit of wider reading.

This edition first published 2012

2012 Valerie Smith

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Smith, Valerie, 1956

Toni Morrison : writing the moral imagination / Valerie Smith.

p. cm. (Blackwell introductions to literature ; 42)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4051-6033-9 (hardback)

1. Morrison, ToniCriticism and interpretation. I. Title.

PS3563.O8749Z856 2012

813'.54dc23

2012012320

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover image: Photo of Toni Morrison. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Cover design by Design Deluxe

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to many people and organizations for the intellectual, financial and emotional support I received during the process of writing this book. First and foremost, I thank Toni Morrison for the gift of her eloquent, rigorous, and inspired body of work. Her writing across a wide range of genres has remapped the landscape of African American, US, and global literatures; revised our understanding of our national history; and challenged us to reconsider our understanding of constructions of race, gender, sex, class, and power. I am privileged to have had this opportunity to write a book about one of the most gifted, versatile, and influential writers and intellectuals of our time. I thank her for graciously supporting this project and for spending hours in conversation with me.

I am grateful also to Emma Bennett, Isobel Bainton, Louise Butler, Caroline Clamp, Bridget Jennings, Ben Thatcher, and Kathy Syplywczak at Wiley-Blackwell for their commitment to this project and for their patience and support in seeing it to completion. I thank Alison Waggitt for indexing the book with such care and attention.

I owe a profound debt of gratitude to the Office of the Dean of the Faculty at Princeton University, the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Alphonse G. Fletcher Foundation for providing me with support during the years I worked on this book. I am especially grateful to Heinrich von Staden, Professor Emeritus of Classics and History of Science at IAS, for encouraging me to apply to the Institute and for his consistent interest in my project.

The Liguria Study Center in Bogliasco, Italy provided me with space and time to write and revise much of this book. The stunning views of the Ligurian Sea and the spacious, light and airy writing studio and accommodations offered the ideal context in which to work. Special thanks to the gracious, good-humored, and exceptionally efficient staff Ivana Folle, Alessandra Natale, and Valeria Soave and the nurturing and brilliant group of fellows Rosa del Carmen Martinez Ascobereta, Isis Ascobereta, Linda Ben-Zvi, Sam Ben-Zvi, Angela Bourke, Mags Harries, Lajos Heder, Joel Kaye, Erika Latta, Thea Lurie, Michael McMahon, and Roberta Vacca for creating a vibrant and intellectually stimulating community of friends and colleagues.

I am grateful for the invitations Ive received to speak about Morrisons work at colleges and universities both in the US and abroad. I thank Theresa Delgadillo at the Ohio State University; Gillian Logan and Rick Chess at the University of North Carolina, Asheville; Jacquelyn McLendon at the College of William and Mary; Aoi Mori at the Hiroshima Jogakuin University; Azusa Nishimoto at the Aoyama Gakuin University; Sonnet Retman at the University of Washington; and Leslie Wingard at the College of Wooster for allowing me to share my work and to benefit from conversations with their students and colleagues. I also thank Sandra Bermann for inviting me to interview Toni Morrison at a meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association; that conversation provided me with the first opportunity to think about Morrisons books for young readers.