Why do we resist the commonness of humanity? Morrison's Beloved and Bluest Eye
In The Origin of Others, Toni Morrison wrote, “For the stranger is not foreign, she is random; not alien but remembered; and it is the randomness of the encounter with our already known—although unacknowledged—selves that summons a ripple of alarm. That makes us reject the figure…makes us want to own, govern, and administrate the Other. We deny her personhood.”.
Within Morrison’s novels, audiences are given front row seats to the exploration of a phenomenon she believed needed examined via language, images, and experiences. In this course, we will read and discuss “othering” as presented in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved. Is “othering” as inherent a human trait as communing? How does literature ease the resistance to commonness?
The texts for the course are the 2004 Vintage Reprint edition of Beloved (ISBN: 9781400033416) and the 2007 Vintage International edition of The Bluest Eye (ISBN: 9780307278449).
Learn more about Beloved and The Bluest Eye on the Premise Goodreads page.
This course is taught by instructor Onyema Nweze.