The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison: Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness [Hardcover]

Although all published biographical information on Toni Morrison agrees that her birth name was Chloe Anthony Wofford, John Duvall's book challenges this claim. Using new biographical information, he explores the issue of names and naming in Morrison's fiction and repeatedly finds surprising traces of the Nobel Prize-winning author's struggle to construct a useable identity as an African American woman novelist. Whatever the exact circumstances surrounding her decision to become Toni, one thing becomes clear: the question of identity was not a given for Morrison.Introductory Identifications: Making it Up or Finding It? Invisible Name and Complex Authority in The Bluest Eye : Morrison's Covert Letter to Ralph Ellison Engendering Sexual/Textual Identity: Sula and the Artistic Gaze Song of Solomon , Narrative Identity, and the Faulknerian Intertext Descent in the 'House of Chloe': Rape, Race, and Identity in Tar Baby The Authorized Morrison: Reflexivity and the Historiographic

'...an important contribution to Morrison criticism...it gestures toward powerful issues at the center of Morrison's work...'

- Erik Dussere, Novel

'The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison is, without question, the most engaging book on Morrison I have ever read.'

- Michael Awkward

'..an effective new way to read one of our most important writers.'

- South Atlantic Review

JOHN DUVALLl is Associate Professor of English at Purdue University.