The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison and American Identity

Joshua Frank, instructor

Description. In this workshop, we will examine the life and legacy of Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison through a deep analysis and discussion of her first novel. The Bluest Eye is an intersectional masterpiece, touching on race, c class, gender, trauma, disability and the tyranny of our cultural aesthetics, in 205 lyrical pages. Toni Morrison’s passionate, unsparing vision enriches us with its wisdom, and challenges us with its honesty.

Class schedule.

Session 1. Why Morrison Matters

The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, was written from 1962-1965, while Morrison was an editor at Random House, working with, among others, Angela Davis.
The Bluest Eye was taken out of print in 1974, before its revival in the 1980’s. I first read it in 1989.
Morrison was born in 1931 and grew up in Lorain, Ohio, where The Bluest Eye is set.
Some of the “why” and “how” of The Bluest Eye.
Structure of The Bluest Eye: Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer.

Session 2. Autumn

Racial Identity– Exploring Double Consciousness/Dueling Consciousness.
Why does Pecola want blue eyes? Why doesn’t Claudia want blue eyes?
Prologue–Exploring the power, for good and ill, of the communities that raise children.
Childhood and memory–”As painful as I remember?”
Gender and agency–Ms. Marie–A free Black woman in a small town full of gossip.

Session 3: Winter

Geraldine and Junior/Class and internalized racism/Class consciousness in the Black community of Lorian Ohio
The Great Migration–”They came from Mobile . . .”

Session 4: Spring

Spring melancholy.
Cholly and Polly have a family.
Work and Home.
Gospel and Jazz–The music that tells their stories.
Soaphead Church—Racial Self-loathing–The epic, tragic history of British colonialism and American identity.

Session 5: Summer

The power of Gossip—“Quiet as it’s kept.”
Pecola’s fate–An intersection of identities.
Our fate–The communities that define who we are.
Much too late . . .

Required Materials. The Bluest Eye–Vintage Edition

Prep for first class. Read Foreword to the Vintage Edition (I will send a pdf.)