I read an excerpt from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” for my Early American Fiction class today, and I’m hooked. We’re not reading the whole novel in class, but I think I will on my own. Somehow I missed out on this gem; almost everyone in my class had already read it.
I’m a white lady, so if any folks of color would be willing to give me some perspective on it, I would love to hear from you!
#literature #bookstodon #ToniMorrison #BlackHistory #BlackAuthors #GradSchool #PortlandState @bookstodon
I loved this book. But it's also difficult to understand, and I plan on rereading it eventually. I was unaware of her inspiration when I went into it, though I'm assuming your class covered that. Mostly, I was just unaware initially that it was a ghost story (as opposed to a story with a ghost). Once I grasped that (which took an embarrassingly long time!), it made way more sense to me and I couldn't put it down!
@lilcoppertop @bookstodon I was also sooooo confused at first, I ended up having to look up the Wikipedia to orient myself. We didn’t get a lot of background on it, I think my professor wanted to just throw us in. I also didn’t realize the time period it was in because our other texts for today were from much earlier
My professor is a sneaky one; she wanted us to connect the themes and emotions of Black people and their trauma across time periods.
OH! So you'd probably have some of the same confusions going in that I had. But your Wikipedia dive should give you the basics for understanding the story. Those were just the two particular things I found super useful. The rest is empathy and familiarity with other Black writers. I think (hope!) you will enjoy this one! I'm slowly working through all her books right now. Just finished Paradise last year and would also highly recommend it.
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lilcoppertop