1,007 research outputs found
A politics of conversion: nihilism and love in Toni Morrison's fiction
Full text linkTese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras.O estudo Uma Política de Conversão: Niilismo e Amor na Ficção de Toni Morrison começa com a idéia de que a Literatura Afro-Americana apresenta um sentido de auto-reflexividade e hibridismo, através do qual autobiografia dialoga com romance, o espiritual se funde com o político. A partir deste traço dialógico a auto-reflexividade é politicamente estabelecida entre niilismo e amor. Na política de conversão, o estudo analisa as formas como mulheres negras, individualmente ou em grupo, fogem da escravidão para a liberdade, avançam da individualidade para a coletividade, ou substituem niilismo por amor. Metodologicamente o estudo apresenta sete capítulos. O primeiro discute os aspectos dialógicos que ilustram as conexões entre narrativas espirituais, de escravos e ficção, entre espiritualidade e política. O segundo examina o diálogo entre a conversão, pregação pública e formação da comunidade em Diário e Experiências Religiosas de Lee. O capítulo sugere que ao afirmar espiritualidade e humanidade a narradora abre profundo espaço para a mulher negra reclamar direitos civis. O terceiro discute o diálogo no interior da política de conversão entre narrativa de escravos e ficção. Este diálogo lida com niilismo e amor em Incidentes de Jacobs e Amada, Sula e O Olho Mais Azul de Morrison. Para a análise de niilismo e amor valores individuais e coletivos são considerados em relação a cinco aspectos: ambiente e agente antagonistas, agente de apoio, propósito da personagem e resultado alcançado. É visível, no estudo, o apoio que certas mulheres recebem de suas comunidades para contra-atacar antagonistas. O apoio nem sempre resulta na superação do niilismo e, por isso, derrota temporária pode ocorrer antes que elas sejam reintegradas à comunidade, como acontece com Linda Brent. O quarto capítulo examina as fraquezas e as energias da política da conversão e a reintegração de Sethe Suggs à comunidade de Bluestone Road. O quinto avalia como a comunidade de Bottom tenta controlar a individualidade de Sula Peace e como um grupo de mulheres lideradas por Nel Wrights consegue resgatar o espírito de independência da heroína. O sexto mostra como a política da conversão das mulheres de Lorain é incapaz de garantir a saúde mental de Pecola Breedlove, mas consegue criar um papel mais consistente para o grupo. No sétimo, a conclusão examina da relação dialética entre niilismo e amor ou auto-amor nas experiências dos indivíduos e dos grupos. O estudo sugere que em Incidentes a busca de Linda Brent por liberdade envolve elementos de autodestruição e de autoempoderamento. Da mesma maneira, o estudo conclui que em Amada o amor que Sethe Suggs tem para as suas crianças mata a própria filha, enfatizando, assim, o desejo de livrá-la da escravidão. Igualmente em Sula, a individualidade de Sula Peace não apenas limita, mas também expande as experiências do grupo, levando-o à emancipação. Finalmente, em O Olho Mais Azul a luta de Pecola Breedlove por amor e beleza reflete auto-ódio ao mesmo tempo em que reconstrói a auto-apreciação de toda a comunidade
Transforming America : Toni Morrison and classical tradition
Full text linkThis thesis examines a significant but little-studied feature of Toni Morrison's
work: her ambivalent engagement with classical tradition. Analysing all eight
novels. it argues that her allusiveness to the cultural practices of Ancient Greece
and Rome is fundamental to her political project. Illuminating hegemonic
America's consistent recourse to the classical world in the construction of its
identity, I expand on prior scholarship by reading Morrison's own revisionary
classicism as a subversion of dominant US culture. My three-part study
examines the way her deployment of Graeco-Roman tradition destabilizes
mythologies of the American Dream, prevailing narratives of America's
history, and national ideologies of purity. Part I shows that Morrison enlists
tragic conventions to problematize the Dream's central tenets of upward
mobility, progress and freedom. It argues that while her engagement with Greek
choric models effects her refutation of individualism, it is her later novels'
rejection of a wholly catastrophic vision that enables her to avoid reinscribing
the Dream. Part II demonstrates that it is through her classical allusiveness that
Morrison rewrites American history. Her multiply-resonant echoes of the epic,
pastoral and tragic traditions that have consistently informed the dominant
culture's justifications for and representations of its actions enable her
reconfiguration of colonization, of the foundation of the new nation, of slavery
and its aftermath and of the Civil Rights Movement. Part III illuminates how
the author uses the discourse of pollution or miasma to challenge
Enlightenment-derived valorizations of racial purity and to expose the practices
of scapegoating and revenge as flawed means to moral purity. Her interest in
the hegemonic fabrication of classical tradition as itself a pure and purifying
force is matched by her insistence on that tradition's African elements, and thus
on its potent impurity. Her own radical classicism, therefore, is central to the
transformation of America that her novels envision
"Shuttles in the rocking loom of history": dislocation in Toni Morrison's fiction
Full text linkThis thesis examines the trope of 'dislocation' within the later novels of Toni Morrison, identifying it as central to her representation ot African American history and experience. Organising my project around the theme and figure of dislocation allows me to bring together diverse considerations such as those of the geographical, communal, familial, cultural, corporeal and narrative displacements that preoccupy Morrison's fiction. Developing a line of enquiry neglected within the field of scholarship addressing Morrison's work, most importantly my thesis finds this term useful for negotiating the author's engagement with the diaspora engendered by racial slavery. In particular, it explores her evocation of the black diaspora as a configuration encompassing sites of remembering, affirmation and potentiality as well as processes of displacement, disruption, deracination and loss.
My research is informed by a broad range of critical resources but especially Edouard Glissant's and Paul Gilroy's theories of diasporic interaction. Tracing symbolic spatial trajectories and enabling and disabling relationships to the past, I investigate Morrison's imaginary in terms of a black Atlantic of roots and routes, patterns of traversal, connection and exchange. Rejecting a narrowly defined notion of African American Studies, this thesis seeks to extend the ways in which Morrison's novels are approached, locating in them a truly diasporic vision
Interpretare un processo di qualità [Interpreting a Process of Quality]
No full textIl saggio presenta elementi interpretativi della pubblicazione "Sudtirolo Architettura/Südtirol Architektur“, in cui è confluito un complesso lavoro di ricerca condotto per alcuni anni dall'autrice nella Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano. I contenuti sono condivisi in occasione di un confronto sulle prospettive di applicazione dello standard NZEB nell'up-cycling degli edifici*.
Il punto di partenza è la normativa CasaClima, che vede il territorio alpino leader per quanto riguarda gli aspetti energetici delle costruzioni, ma, piuttosto che concentrarsi sugli aspetti tecnici riguardanti le soluzioni costruttive ad alta efficienza adottate, ampiamente trattati nella letteratura del settore, l'obiettivo del lavoro è entrare nel merito delle connessioni tra architettura e condizioni culturali del territorio, che consentano di comprendere le ragioni dell'eccellenza nel settore delle costruzioni.
In questi termini, il saggio intende mettere a fuoco le peculiarità di una ricerca di processo, che per prima, rispetto ad altri studi, affronta il tema di un modello sudtirolese di gestione del territorio, dove si riconosce un forte nesso tra abilità tecniche e sviluppo sociale. Entra nel cuore della ricerca che riguarda: il nodo cruciale della presunta neutralità della tecnologia rispetto al territorio in cui è utilizzata; il rapporto tra innovazione e architettura; il ruolo di quest'ultima nella società.
La tesi che si vuole dimostrare nella ricerca è che il Sudtirolo si presenta come un caso unico nel panorama italiano che deve essere interpretato al di là di quanto riguarda specificatamente gli aspetti tecnici; come è infatti documentato nel lavoro, l'eccellenza dei risultati nell'ambito dell'architettura e delle tecnologie applicate all'edilizia deriva dalle differenze culturali di queste zone rispetto al resto del Paese, che si concretizzano a vari livelli in un più ampio sviluppo della partecipazione delle persone alla vita della collettività.
* Il lavoro riporta i contenuti della relazione di Michela Toni “Presentazione di volumi di autori del Dipartimento di Architettura – Unife su temi inerenti al Convegno. Sudtirolo Architettura – Le differenze di un territorio attraverso un itinerario tra costruzioni realizzate nel rispetto della normativa CasaClima/ Südtirol Achitektur – Die Eigenheiten eines Gebietes am Beispiel von Gebäuden mit KlimaHaus Standard ”.
La presentazione si è svolta il 4 luglio 2016 nel Pre-Convegno che ha anticipato il Convegno SITdA, svolto presso il Dipartimento di Architettura dell'Università di Ferrara nelle giornate del 4 e del 5 luglio 2016, Nuove prospettive di efficienza energetica e qualità ambientale per il patrimonio edilizio esistente. Riflessioni e strumenti per il raggiungimento degli standard NZEB nell'up-cycling degli edifici.This essay focuses on interpretative issues of the "South Tyrol Architecture/Südtirol Architektur" publication, in which a multiannual research work conducted by the author in the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano has merged. The contents are shared during a comparison on the perspectives of the NZEB standard application in the up-cycling of buildings*. The starting point is the CasaClima standard, which sees the Alpine region as a leader in dealing with the energy aspects of the buildings. However, rather than focusing on the technical issues associated with the high efficiency construction solutions adopted (widely discussed in the sector literature), the work aims at entering into the connections between architecture and cultural conditions of the territory, which allow to understand the reasons for excellence in the construction sector. In these terms, the essay focuses on the peculiarities of a first-ever research addressing the theme of a South Tyrolean model of land management, where a strong link between technical skills and social development is recognized. It enters into the very heart of the research, i.e., the crucial node of the assumed neutrality of technology with respect to the territory in which it is used; the relationship between innovation and architecture; and the role of the latter in society. The assumption to be demonstrated in the research is that South Tyrol is a unique case in the Italian landscape to be understood beyond what specifically concerns the technical aspects. As documented in this work, the excellence of the results in the field of architecture and technologies applied to construction comes from the cultural differences of these areas compared to the rest of the country, which materialize in a wider development of people's participation in the life of the community.
* The work summarizes a presentation by Michela Toni titled “Presentazione di volumi di autori del Dipartimento di Architettura, Unife” about the topics discussed at the Südtirol Achitektur’s conference “Le differenze di un territorio attraverso un itinerario tra costruzioni realizzate nel rispetto della normativa CasaClima/ Südtirol Achitektur – Die Eigenheiten eines Gebietes am Beispiel von Gebäuden mit KlimaHaus Standard ”. Toni’s presentation was given on July 4, 2016 during the workshop prior to the SITdA conference (Department of Architecture, University of Ferrara, July 4 & 5, 2016, “Nuove prospettive di efficienza energetica e qualità ambientale per il patrimonio edilizio esistente. Riflessioni e strumenti per il raggiungimento degli standard NZEB nell'up-cycling degli edifici”)
Women Look into Love: Reimaginings of Heterosexual Love in Contemporary Women’s Fiction
Full text linkThis thesis explores how contemporary women writers write about heterosexual love, considering not only the ways it has been implicated in patriarchal models and traditional romance plots, but also its portrayal in light of developments in feminism and fiction in the 1990s and 2000s. The thesis examines Carol Shields’s The Republic of Love (1992), Toni Morrison’s Jazz (1992), Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (1993), Nadine Gordimer’s The Pickup (2001), Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto (2001), Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin (2000) and Doris Lessing’s Love, Again (1995). In this study it emerges that as well as illustrating continuities, the scope of the treatment of love is opened up further in recent fiction as aspects like age or social, economic and historical factors are centralised and considered in interesting ways. The thesis also identifies some positive approaches to heterosexual love, as in, for example, the emphasis on men’s capacity for emotions. However, this is not always the case, as a writer like Lessing further develops a vision of love without providing an affirmative view. Thus, the contemporary women writers’ work can be said to contribute to understandings of heterosexual love on many different levels, even as feminist criticisms of repressive, patriarchal forms of romantic relationship continue to remain relevant
Open destinies : modern American women and the short story cycle
Full text linkThis thesis examines the juncture between the short story cycle form and gender politics. It explores how twentieth-century women from the United States have been using the form to represent and question gender identity. The introduction outlines commentaries on the story cycle and considers definitions of the form. It includes case studies of earlier twentieth-century cycles by American women: cycles such as Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps that have been passed over by critics of the form.
Chapter One presents Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples as a cycle paradigm, examining conventions such as the form's metafictional dimension and its preoccupation with communal identity. Chapter Two argues that Grace Paley's scattered Faith narratives set a standard for more dispersed versions of the form. Chapter Three considers how Joyce Carol Oates uses the sequential cycle to represent gender identity as a social construct. Chapters Four and Five examine the macrocosmic cycles of Gloria Naylor and Louise Erdrich and consider changes in their form and gender politics. The final 'composite' chapters explore postmodern versions of the form such as Susan Minot's Monkeys. The prose works of Sandra Cisneros stretch across the story cycle continuum, whilst Toni Morrison's Paradise is universally regarded as a novel. Readings of contemporary cycles by Melissa Bank, Elissa Schappell and Emily Carter demonstrate that American women are re-invigorating the form to facilitate the plural identity of the postmodern heroine
Inaugural lecture
No full textIn the first BMI lecture, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison explored many issues of contemporary international significance
Toni Morrison\u27s Beloved: The Critical Reception
No full textToni Morison’s Beloved was published in September, 1987. This guide features links to numerous contemporaneous reviews of the novel and highlights several key awards and honors received by the novel and its author in subsequent years
The critical reception of Toni Morrison: 1970 to 1988, 1989
No full textThis study examines the critical reception of Toni Morrison's novels from 1970 to 1988. During this eighteen-year period, Toni l1orrison published five novels: The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1973), Song of Solomon (1977), Tar Baby (1981), and Beloved (1987). In this study the criticism is divided into five periods, each beginning with the publication of a novel. This study contends that Toni Morrison's novels draw on three convergent literary traditions for ideas, meanings and structures. Consequently, as the critics respond to the novels, a pattern of criticism emerges from each tradition. The critical responses to the novels can be placed within three schools of criticism--those responses arising from Euro-Americans, those arising from Afro-Americans, and those arising from feminists drawn from both groups. Each school of criticism reflects a structure of beliefs and values which transcend literary judgments. Each critic's response grows naturally out of his respective tradition. Consequently, this study can be placed within the significantly large body of literature which suggests the sociological nature of criticism
Toni Morrison reads her work
No full textRecorded in Ithaca, NY by Cornell University., Speaker(s): Author, professor at Howard University, Cornell alumnus., Reading and Lecture.Toni Morrison gives a talk entitled, A Matter of Fiction, which discusses why people write and read fiction, specifically relating her own motivations. Morrison focuses on the preservation of the oral tradition as her primary motivation.1_xgip1xp
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