My Morrison Research

The cool thing about studying an author that is still living and writing is that you can find some really cool insights into their literature because they are still living to talk about it.

Toni Morrison is known for challenging all literary themes and motifs that readers may be expecting. She always is forcing us to rethink things and realize that things are not always as they seem. Something she has done that defies the traditional role of a "serious author" is being involved in communication media. In this case, I'm talking about her many appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

I found a really cool article that I posted on the Diigo group that talks about the criticism that Morrison got from academia that she would go on a daytime talk show and lead book discussions. How insulting for a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner to do that. But as I have thought about, I have realized that Morrison was essentially foreseeing the changing modes of communication for writing about and discussing literature. Morrison first appeared on Oprah in 1996, and look at how much our modes of communication have changed.

While I think that Morrison was kind of trying to cause a stir in the literature world, which she likes to do a lot, it's clear now to see how wise she was to do it. Now we have even more ways of discussing literature like blogs, on-line forums, social networking, etc. Toni Morrison was beginning to explore that through the world of television. Makes me like her more.