- Born in 1931 in Lorain, OH
- Given name is Chloe Anthony Wofford (Toni is from Anthony and Morrison is her ex-husband's name)
- Influenced by the spirituality, storytelling, and African American folklore prevalent in her childhood home
- Attended Howard and then Cornell Universities
- Married and divorced (1958-1963) and has 2 sons
- Taught at a variety of universities (Howard, Yale, Princeton)
- Worked as a publisher at Random House for 20 years
- 1970-Publishes her first novel The Bluest Eye
- 1973-Publishes Song of Solomon; wins the National Book Critics Circle Award
- 1987- Publishes Beloved; wins the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
- 1993- Receives the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African American woman to ever be selected for this award
Background on Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon is a departure from the 2 novels Morrison wrote before it in that it focuses on men. In her foreword to SoS, Morrison says that she wanted to explore "what was for me a radical shift in imagination from a female locus* to a male one. To get out of the house, to de-domesticate the landscape that had so far been the site of my work. To travel. To fly" (xii). Pay attention to threads or themes of travelling and flying throughout the novel. Also note that Morrison is setting out to write about men--is she successful?
When she was asked by a journalist why the protagonist of SoS had to be a man, Morrison argued that "men have more to learn in certain areas than women do. I want him to learn to surrender, and to dominate--dominion and surrender [something women already know]...what I wanted was a character who had everything to learn." (interview with Anne Koenen, 1980) Another distinction between men and women, according to Morrison--True?
Morrison's writing process during this book is now as famous as the book itself: she wrote the entire ending of this novel first, in a fit of "artistic inspiration," and then painstakingly wrote the rest of the novel from the beginning to match the ending. She credits her father's death for this inspiration:
I had no access to what I planned to write about until my father died...He had a flattering view of me as someone interesting, capable, witty, smart, high-spirited. I did not share that view of myself, and wondered why he held it. but it was the death of that girl--the one that lived in his head--that I mourned when he died. Even more than I mourned him, I suffered the loss of the person he thought I was. I think it was because I felt closer to him than to myself that, after his death, I deliberately sought his advice for writing the novel that continued to elude me. "What are the men you know really like?"
He answered. (xi-xii)
Pay attention to the idea that this novel starts out of a familial/parental relationship.
Like Huck Finn, SoS has been banned repeatedly, despite its enduring reputation among critics and the folks who write AP exams. It is, as I said before, controversial, provocative, explicit, and explosive, in addition to being a masterpiece of narrative voice and structure. Try to enjoy the compelling plot, wrestle with the powerful themes and complex characters, and overlook the parts that seem odd or unsettling.
*sphere, center, or place of being
