American Studies in Review

A Knowing So Deep Its Like a Secret:

Recent Approaches to Race, Identity, and
Transformation in Toni Morrisons Fiction

Rebecca Hope Ferguson. Rewriting Black Identities: Transition and Exchange

in the Novels of Toni Morrison. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
K. Zauditu-Selassie. African Spiritual Traditions in the Novels of Toni
Morrison. Gainesville: UP of Florida, 2009.
Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber. Race, Trauma, and Home in the Novels of Toni
Morrison. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2010.
Reviewed by Katrina Harack
Abstract: In the burgeoning eld of Toni Morrison studies, three scholars
have recently made original contributions to the eld with their interdisciplinary scholarship, showing a trend in Morrison studies of forging new
readings through the use of comparative and cross-cultural techniques. In
so doing, Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber, K. Zauditu-Selassie, and Rebecca Hope
Ferguson help to elucidate Morrisons complex relationship to the past
and to African and American culture as well as the consistent ethical
concerns across her body of work. Zauditu-Selassie focuses primarily on
Morrisons references to African cosmology, while Ferguson and Schreiber
take interdisciplinary approaches to key themes (transition, exchange, and
the concept of home) in Morrisons work. While Ferguson and Schreiber
tend to problematize Morrisons relationship to an African past, ZaudituSelassie takes a much more celebratory approach regarding her use of
cultural and spiritual references.
Keywords: Morrison, race, identity, African, interdisciplinary.
Resume : Recemment, trois specialistes ont fait une contribution originale
au champ detudes sur Toni Morrison grace a` leur bourse detudes interdisciplinaire. Cette contribution demontre une tendance de ce champ detudes
en pleine croissance a` faconner de nouvelles interpretations a` laide de techniques comparatives et interculturelles. Ce faisant, Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber, K.
Zauditu-Selassie et Rebecca Hope Ferguson aident a` elucider la relation
6 Canadian Review of American Studies/Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42, no. 2, 2012
doi: 10.3138/cras.42.2.246

complexe quentretient Morrison avec le passe, les cultures africaines et

americaines ainsi que les questions ethiques qui traversent son uvre.
Zauditu-Selassie examine surtout les references de Morrison a` la cosmologie
africaine, tandis que Ferguson et Schreiber prennent une approche interdisciplinaire aux the`mes cles (la transition, lechange et le concept du foyer)
de luvre de Morrison. Alors que Ferguson et Schreiber ont tendance
a` rendre quelque peu problematique la relation de Morrison a` un passe
africain, Zauditu-Selassie prend une approche beaucoup plus festive a`
lusage de references culturelles et spirituelles.
Mots cles : Morrison, race, identite, africain, interdisciplinaire

Addressing what it means to be a black woman in America, Morrison

wrote for Essence that her ancestors, including those who were
enslaved,
had this canny ability to shape an untenable reality, mold it, sing
it, reduce it to its manageable, transforming essence, which is a
knowing so deep its like a secret. In your silence, enforced or
chosen, lay not only eloquence but discourse so devastating that
civilization could not risk engaging in it lest it lose the ground it
stomped. (Morrison, Knowing 32)

Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Such an understanding has led to novels that rewitness different

aspects of this shared past, exploring both the power and the danger
inherent in such secret knowledge. Scholarship on Morrison has
commented on her exploration of this untenable reality of slavery
and of the African American voices that developed out of it; on her
particular grasp of history and memory; on her representation of
the psychological ramications of slavery; on her depiction of race
relations in America; her manipulation of form; and, more recently,
on her in-depth examinations of identity, use of religious references,
and use of African themes and beliefs as well as on the representation of masculinity and femininity in her novels. The sheer volume
of Morrison criticism written since the publication of The Bluest Eye
is difcult to grasp; a search for her name in the MLA online bibliography produces nearly two thousand results. It is difcult, then, to
break new ground in Morrison scholarship, not only because of the
number of books and articles that have been produced, but also
because of the consistency of the ethical concerns of her work
her novels generally attend to similar themes and issues, though
they focus on different periods of history. Three recent publications
break new ground by offering an interdisciplinary analysis of transition and exchange (Ferguson); emphasizing Morrisons use of

247

Canadian Review of American Studies 42 (2012)

African religious cosmology (Zauditu-Selassie); and analyzing the

concept of home and racial identity, trauma, and memory in her
novels (Schreiber). These three works overlap in interesting ways
and point to the development in Morrison studies of more comparative and interdisciplinary work.

248

In Rewriting Black Identities: Transition and Exchange in the Novels of

Toni Morrison, which was the recipient of a Toni Morrison Society
Recognition Award, Rebecca Hope Ferguson examines eight of
Morrisons novels, up to and including Love (2003). She focuses on
the shifting nature of black identity across Morrisons novels and
makes use of psychoanalytic criticism, race theory, feminist critiques,
and the concepts of transition and exchange. These broad terms
allow Ferguson to explore aspects of black identity in Morrisons
characters but also to examine how cultural, social, and historical
changes have an effect on individuals. Indeed, Ferguson shows
how Morrison presents the self as decentred, easily destabilized
and necessarily relational (15). As a result, characters often experience fragmentation or, alternatively, a defensive xity (16), both
of which are dangerous. Ferguson explores transition in terms of
place, space, and time (18); vision as an exchange involving
a complex engagement of personal sight with more metaphorical,
poetic evocations of vision, space, and time which converge, above
all, in consciousness and recollection (19); physical spaces and
bodily experience; and vocal exchange (or call and response). Each
of her eight chapters focuses on a particular type of transition or
exchange, and her conclusion points out the paradoxical nature of
Morrisons writing, where she is deeply responsive to change as
loss but also aware of transition as a demanding, dynamic historical and cultural process. Movement or progress may occur, but
just as often, this movement takes place in a range of directions, or
in a direction that is then repeated in reverse (28283).
Overall, this book provides innovative readings of the novels and
is well researched, with strong connections to existing scholarship
and some striking moments of original interpretation. For example,
the opening chapter on The Bluest Eye is usefully interdisciplinary,
incorporating the psychological theories of D.W. Winnicott, and
the chapter on Jazz uses the work of Alain Locke and the concept
of the New Negro to show how Morrison is exploring a transitional
moment in black history. The downside of this thorough research
into and beyond Morrison studies is that, at times, the footnotes
take up more than half a page, meaning that Fergusons own argument is somewhat overshadowed by her references.

Fergusons chapter on call and response in Song of Solomon is particularly interesting, showing how Morrison is drawn to the heroic
aspects of the quest motif as well as the more mundane interactions and encounters, responses and responsibilities involved (80).
Ferguson explores how the quest motif is developed, although
rather than emphasizing a completed quest at the end of the novel,
she shows how issues of freedom and agency remain problematic.
She recognizes the importance of ritual (witness her insightful analysis of Hagars funeral and of how that particular ritual fosters
larger ideas of exchange) but her focus is on a transforming and
transformative African American culturea culture which is surviving by sustaining such practicesrather than [on] . . . a strictly
literary and intellectual legacy (101). She also points out that the
voices of the female trio are not entirely unied, so that the role
of women as notional custodians of an African heritage is . . . problematized (102). This is a very different approach from that of
Zauditu-Selassie, outlined below.

While Fergusons book concludes by stating that Morrisons interest

in African American identity does not allow for or promote a return
to Africa, K. Zauditu-Selassies African Spiritual Traditions in the
Novels of Toni Morrison asserts a much deeper engagement with
these traditions on Morrisons part, providing a more personal,
in-depth examination of Morrisons use of African cosmology and
beliefs. The book is unusual in its overt straddling of what ZaudituSelassie calls two realms . . . at once divinatory and analytic (xii).

249
Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Overall, Ferguson effectively leads her readers to the conclusion

that, in Morrisons body of work, the concept of transition is never
simple. Just as Morrison has no desire simply to repeat and rewrite
existing genres, she also has no desire to explore an imagined African
past that is represented as utopian. Ferguson also argues that
Morrisons most African characters are also often the most elusive, so that she problematizes any sense of simply reclaiming that
heritage wholesale: [T]here can be no nal movement of return, no
closure or healing in a restorative spiritual journey either back to
Africa . . . or to an essentially African identity (288). This book
is a convincing and thorough examination of themes of identity,
transition, and exchange in Morrisons body of work and is valuable in its integration of different discourses (psychology, history,
sociology, genre studies, race studies, etc.) to provide insights into
Morrisons work.

Canadian Review of American Studies 42 (2012)

250

Deploying her own perspective as an initiated Mama Nganga in the

Kongo spiritual tradition, as well as a practising Obatala priest,
Zauditu-Selassie shows how Morrison re-codies these Central
African beliefs along with other African-derived belief systems and
sacred memories, thereby giving her readers vital information
and reinforcing historical and spiritual consciousness (xii). This
book complements the work of Ferguson and Schreiber, providing
insights that give the reader a deeper understanding of the African
traditions that inform Morrisons work. Particularly helpful is the
glossary provided, which claries key terms. Garnering the 2010
Toni Morrison Society Book Prize for Best Single-Authored Book,
this study makes a valuable contribution to the ever-widening eld
of Morrison studies by exploring the intricacies of Morrisons African
references, giving critics the ability to make more informed readings
of the novels.
That being said, there are times when fairly large assumptions are
made about the depth of Morrisons knowledge of African traditions
and about how she uses them in her work, as well as a methodological unwillingness to note how such traditions often work in conjunction or in tension with Christian belief. Of course, as Zauditu-Selassie
notes, Morrison is fully aware of European hegemony, Christian
imposition, and its accompanying spiritual imperialism (4). While
Zauditu-Selassies intention is to move away from a methodology
that emphasizes hybridity and survival and decentres the African
beliefs being examined, this sometimes leads to a rather one-sided
view of what Morrison is trying to accomplish. The focus on elevating African intellectual thought that does not originate nor serve as
a point of departure from a European-constructed critical vantage
point (11) is certainly valid, but because of the nature of Morrisons
work, it is also important for readers to consider her use of Christian
references. Scholars have increasingly been paying attention to
Morrisons manipulation of western and Christian traditions, exploring her relationship to Christianity, Catholicism, and the Bible,
and revealing her awareness of and her critique of such traditions
(see Stave; McClure; Hottges). Though this is not Zauditu-Selassies
focus, and need not be, Morrisons novels demand that some attention be paid to the complex interplay between African and American
cultural traditions. Indicating more explicitly how an African-centred
focus opens up different readings of each novel would help, as
would providing sources for the reader to consult regarding additional cultural and religious interpretations.

The book is divided into three sections, each of which includes

detailed explanations of African spiritual beliefs and makes excellent
use of ethnographic, anthropological, and historical texts. In general,
there is less engagement with existing Morrison criticism than in
Fergusons and Schreibers books (except for criticism dealing
explicitly with African belief in Morrisons novels, most of which
does not go into as much detail as Zauditu-Selassie does), and so
this book has greater space to forge new readings of Morrisons
work.

251
Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Zauditu-Selassie begins with an extensive introduction in which

she addresses the trauma of enslavement and marvels at how those
enslaved peoples maintained their existing core values to ensure
their psychic and spiritual integrity, creating a nation out of many
people(8). The trauma that resulted from being forced to hide
beliefs and customs as well as the horric experiences that slaves
faced had long-lasting repercussions; now, according to ZaudituSelassie, Morrison is trying to recover cultural memories with her
use of images, archetypes, and values from African spiritual traditions (3). In this way, each of the novels is a commemorative site
where readers can participate in re-collecting buried knowledge to
refortify and restore a sense of identity and cultural connectivity
(4). Both Zauditu-Selassie and Ferguson are explicitly concerned
with the formation of identity, but here the religio-cultural side of
identity is more fully explored. Zauditu-Selassie sees Morrisons
works as one cohesive meta-narrative, and understanding that narrative depends on the spiritual traditions that have coalesced and
reconciled with one another in the Americas (6). She is speaking
here of African traditions (such as those of the Bantu, Yoruba, and
Kongo) and of women healers. She wishes to avoid a creolist critical position that nds an insubstantiality in African core beliefs
that would allow superimposed religious principles to supplant
their spiritual centers . . . [and] remove(s) the ontological agency
necessary for self-regeneration(9). Thus, she states that reading
alongside ethnographic texts provides the necessary cultural frame
to understand [Morrisons] novels deeply embedded spiritual
ideas (11). Her goal is to re-align the trajectory for reading AfricanAmerican womens literature by emphasizing how African spiritual
ideas engender community cohesion and collective remembering
(11). In this, Zauditu-Selassie clearly identies the African spiritual
and cosmological beliefs that inform Morrisons textsa fundamental project, indeed.

Canadian Review of American Studies 42 (2012)

252

Most interesting in terms of providing new insights into Morrisons

writing are the chapters on Tar Baby and Song of Solomon, which can
be found in the section Psychic Domains and Spiritual Locations.
In the chapter on Song of Solomon, Zauditu-Selassie at rst makes
a statement very similar to Fergusons, saying that a resolution is
accomplished in various ways through healing and/or transition or
transformation of the individual and/or community (72). However, she also examines Milkmans quest from the point of view of
the structure of the Middle Passage, conceived as: departure, passage,
arrival, deprivation, and transformation as well as Morrisons use
of the African epic form (70). Elucidating the African references in
the novel, Zauditu-Selassie shows how Pilate is a healer with connections to the Aje or earth mothers and the ancestors (82), and
Milkman comes to an understanding of the tree of lifea metaphor for self-realization (96). Morrisons readers are thereby challenged to reect on and reevaluate their own principles, reclaim
their names and family stories, and challenge historic hegemony,
cultural erasure, and spiritual stasis (96). Here, Zauditu-Selassie
emphasizes the positive force of Morrisons recuperation of an
African heritage. In contrast, Ferguson views the novel as much
more ambivalent in its representation of Milkman and the three
women and nds that Morrison is not simply reproducing African
beliefs but showing a transforming and transformative African
American culture (101). Taken together, these works highlight a
tension in Morrisons work between a celebration of African traditions and a questioning of established norms, where the result is a
re-examination of the readers own values or scholarly approach.
Similarly, in the chapter on Tar Baby, Zauditu-Selassie is original in
her analysis of how Morrison links her narrative with eco-critical
considerations of the natural world that are inherently linked to
questioning ones identity and are spiritual at the core (97). Examining the power of the ancestor in relation to Jadine and Son, she
` r`sa`, Oshun, and Shango, as leitmotifs of
looks at two Yoruba O
beauty and sacred medicine and justice (97). Somewhat less convincing is her unqualied identication of Son with certain African
motifs: noting that we meet Son on the boat Stor Konigsgaarten,
which literally translates into star kings garden, she asserts that

[t]he naming of the ship corresponds to one of Shangos accolades:

King of the Earth. Also, the concept of a star and a heart pound` r`sa` of the sweet waters,
ing in sweet expectation represents the O
Oshun, one of Shangos three wives, whose physical correlate is
the heart and one of whose cosmic emblems is the ve-pointed
star. (110)

It is a bit unclear, here (and in a few other places), whether or not it

is assumed that Morrison had these specic references in mind; and
if so, what the basis for such an assumption is (interviews, statements about her reading/research, or a general received knowledge?). Finally, in her last section, which is titled Remembrance
Has Not Left Us: What the Record Shows, Zauditu-Selassie varies
a little more her approach to Morrisons texts. The chapter on
Beloved is a fascinating look at how African concepts of memory
and time are used in this book. This chapter has a more optimistic
approach than does most criticism on Beloved, claiming that both
Sethe and the community emerge from the ritual experience
charged with new strength (166). Unfortunately, while most chapters
in Zauditu-Selassies book are quite thorough, the last chapter on Love
is short and does not provide an extensive close reading of the novel;
instead, it acts as a conclusion that points back to the other works.

Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Finally, Evelyn Jaffe Schreibers book engages thoroughly with existing criticism in the eld but breaks new ground and produces new
readings by taking an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on
trauma, the body, and neurobiology. This text is billed as the rst
to examine all of Morrisons novels to date, including A Mercy
(2008). Schreiber melds psychoanalytic, neurobiological, and cultural
and social theories in her analysis of Morrisons work, concentrating
intensely on the notion of home and its potential as a mnemonic
repository or focus of nostalgia, a place of self-discovery, comfort,
and healing, and a means of moving past trauma. Schreiber claims
that Morrisons characters rely on psychic as well as physical
aspects of home to survive their racial trauma. Home, whether a
place or a concept, retrieved through memory, provides protection
from trauma (1). Trauma is, indeed, the locus of Schreibers interdisciplinary analysis, and this adds a new dimension to Morrison
studies. While a number of scholars have produced article-length
works on the body in Morrisons texts, particularly in the case of
Beloved (see Reinikainen, Girshin, Wardi, and Wyatt, among others),
to my knowledge, Schreibers is the rst book-length project that
analyzes the body in relation to all of Morrisons novels and also

253

Canadian Review of American Studies 42 (2012)

254

connects that analysis to individual and cultural memory and the

potential for healing. Schreiber does consider bodily trauma in relation to contemporary trauma theory, but she enlarges the critical
discussions of Morrisons work by analysing the difculties involved
in recovery, employing theories of attachment, separation anxiety,
and neurobiology, in addition to cultural and psychological dynamics,
to suggest how societies and individuals experience and work
through the trauma of difference in concrete ways(2). The result
is an interdisciplinary approach [that] brings together the social,
bodily, psychological, and racial aspects of trauma in a literary
analysis of Morrisons novels (2). This book is dynamic and engaging, redirecting the insights of trauma studies and psychoanalytic
theory (including neurobiology and the body) toward an analysis
of home in Morrisons work.
Schreibers effective introduction gives an overview of the legacy
of slavery and African-American trauma, looking, as well, at how
Morrisons work intricately depicts how home, family, and community can moderate trauma and, as a result, self-esteem (9). She
also provides an overview of trauma as it affects the body, where
the body attaches to trauma (15), but healing can occur through
the telling of stories. Lacans Real and its effects on subjectivity are
brought into the discussion to show how concepts of home and
nostalgia can help to ll a lack created in the symbolic order and
social structure (20). Finally, Schreiber explains the connections
between bodily trauma and cultural identity, where cultural and
personal memory are not intellectual or detached ideas, laws, and
customs but rather physically encoded entities (25). This introduction is useful in establishing the books focus on neurobiology and
memory in relation to Morrisons novels, an exciting approach,
indeed.
Schreibers execution of this project is effective, particularly with
her comparison of multiple books within each chapter. Her Subversive Voices: Eroticizing the Other in William Faulkner and Toni
Morrison won a Toni Morrison Society Book Prize for the best
book on Morrison 20003, and this new study is also notable for
its readability and contribution to Morrison studies. By comparing
works based on their similar approaches to race, trauma, and home
and by avoiding chronological groupings, Schreiber moves beyond
the one work per chapter model and draws fascinating parallels
between books that are not often compared. Perhaps the most ambitious chapter of this type, dealing with three complex novels that

focus on different periods, is Inherited and Generational Trauma:

Coming of Age in The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon. This
chapter is an engaging analysis of how [a]ggression functions as
a bodily acting out of trauma (65) and how friendship and nostalgia
can help to counteract trauma. Schreiber manages to nd an effective
balance between offering close readings of each novel and giving a
sense of their larger implications.

One weakness of Schreibers approach is a slight over-dependence

on positive aspects of nostalgia and a certain failure to recognize
how nostalgia might become dangerous or deter healing. For example, the chapter on Love (the only chapter to analyze a single work),
is very effective in placing this novel in the context of Morrisons
earlier works and drawing new insights regarding the coding of
memory in the body, and how trauma affects these characters on
both an individual and communal level. However, at the end
Schreiber emphasizes how nostalgic memory remains the route to

255
Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Though all the chapters have intriguing comparisons, the one that
breaks the least new ground is the chapter on Slavery and LargeGroup Trauma in Beloved and Paradise. This chapter unavoidably
deals with issues of the large-scale trauma of slavery that have
been raised in many other analyses, as well as the negative impact
of the interruption of mothering and parenting. Schreiber analyses
bodily memory and re-memory in Beloved, but such observations
have been made before (perhaps inevitably, regarding this muchanalyzed novel). There is, however, an interesting assertion that, in
Sweet Home, Sethe experiences a positive, nostalgic memory of
home of that enhances her sense of subjectivity, despite the trauma
she experiences there. In comparing Beloved to Paradise, Schreiber
differentiates her approach from that of others by analysing how
the all-black community evades encounters with the Real by establishing imaginary wholeness and minimizing the trauma of lack
produced in the symbolic structure (54). In contrast, when comparing Jazz and Tar Baby, Schreiber takes a somewhat optimistic
view of each novel, stating that, for these characters, recognizing
the gap between their own desire and the master narrative allows
them to create new homes in which to mature and nd some type
of peace (107). Like Zauditu-Selassie, Schreiber sees Morrison as
gesturing toward an African heritage that could heal; however,
like Ferguson, she also points toward Morrisons ambiguous conclusion in Tar Baby, so that healing is never conclusively achieved
within the novel itself.

Canadian Review of American Studies 42 (2012)

a positive imaginary self (156), showing a certain reluctance to

note the possible negative results of turning to nostalgia or the
dangers of living too much in the past.

256

Finally, displaying her interdisciplinary focus at its most ambitious,

Schreibers last chapter is an exciting comparison of Morrisons
statements about her museum exhibit (called The Foreigners
Home) and the novel A Mercy. Both the exhibit and the novel contemplate what it means to be displaced from ones home, and
Schreibers analysis of the traumas survived by each female character in the novel is focused and illuminating; it shows how Morrison
has continued to explore themes of being other, being an orphan,
and being vulnerable (175), so that [t]he search for a safe community, family, and subjectivity in order to survive echoes her previous works (175).
All three scholarly works bring interdisciplinary knowledge to their
analysis of Morrisons novels and the results are engaging. Of
course, Morrison herself is always well aware of the dual nature of
knowledgeit can be illuminating and uplifting, but it also has a
darker side as being authoritative and unchangeable. One common
thread that runs through each of her novels is that it is dangerous
to forget the past but also dangerous to dwell too much upon it.
As she states in The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished
Expectations, we sometimes turn too much toward what is always
imaginable, always subject to analysis, adventure and creation . . .
past time (171). Her novels play with this tension between rewitnessing the past and gesturing toward possible futures. While
Schreibers analysis of nostalgia and home as an antidote to trauma
is intriguing, more acknowledgement of the dangers of regressing
into memory would be useful. Similarly, in Zauditu-Selassies presentation of African motifs and cosmologies, a slightly more balanced
view of how Morrison uses these motifsnot to announce the
achievement of an integrated and whole culture but to gesture
toward what might be possible if valuable information from the
past were incorporated into the presentwould more accurately
reect the shifting nature of her religious and cultural references
(African and Christian) and her refusal to provide closure in her
novels. Finally, Fergusons book is an engaging, interdisciplinary
analysis of Morrisons work, which opens up new directions for
future research and shows a tension between autonomy and tradition in Morrisons characters, a tension that is also usefully analysed
in Schreibers work. Taken together, all three books give new insight

into Morrisons oeuvre, and the differences among their approaches

and conclusions will provide Morrison scholars with plenty of
material to grapple with as they engage with her work.
Works Cited
Girshin, Thomas. Preserving the Body of Earth: An Ethic of Intercorporeality in Morrisons Beloved. Atenea 26.1 (2006): 15163.
Hottges, Barbel. Faith Matters: Religion, Ethnicity, and Survival in Louise
Erdichs and Toni Morrisons Fiction. Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag, 2007.
McClure, John A. Partial Faiths: Postsecular Fiction in the Age of Pynchon and
Morrison. Athens: U of Georgia P, 2007.
Morrison, Toni. The Future of Time: Literature and Diminished Expectations. Morrison 17086.
. A Knowing So Deep. Morrison 3133.
. What Moves in the Margin: Selected Nonction. Ed. Carolyn C. Denard.
Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2008.
Reinikainen, Hanna. Embodiment of Trauma: Corporeality in Toni
Morrisons Beloved. Close Encounters of an Other Kind: New Perspectives on
Race, Ethnicity, and American Studies. Ed. Roy Goldblatt. Joensuu, Finland:
Faculty of Humanities, University of Joensuu, 2005. 95102.

Wardi, Anissa J. Breaking the Back of Words: The Language of the Body
in Beloved. Griot 17.1 (1998): 4452.
Wyatt, Jean. Giving Body to the Word: The Maternal Symbolic in Toni
Morrisons Beloved. Understanding Toni Morrisons Beloved and Sula: Selected
Essays and Criticisms of the Works by the Nobel Prize-Winning Author. Ed.
Solomon O. Iyasere. Troy, NY: Whitston, 2000. 23157.

Revue canadienne detudes americaines 42 (2012)

Stave, Shirley A. Toni Morrison and the Bible: Contested Intertextualities. New
York: Lang, 2006.

257

Copyright of Canadian Review of American Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press and its
content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's
express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.