Playing in the Dark
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination is a 1992 work of literary criticism by Toni Morrison.
History
In 1990, Morrison delivered as a series of three lectures at the Massey Lectures at Harvard University; she then adapted the texts to 91-page book, published in 1992 by Harvard University Press. [1]
Subject matter
Writing in Signs, Linda Krumholz described Morrison's project as "reread[ing] the American literary canon through an analysis of whiteness to propose the ways that black people were used to establish American identity."[2]
Reviewing Playing in the Dark in The New York Times in 1992, Wendy Steiner said, "The moral and emotional force of [Morrison's] explorations is apparent. If the American identity is formed against this black shadow, it is a sign of abject weakness and a cause for shame....The genius of Ms. Morrison's approach is to enlist those very describers and imaginers--white men of letters---in an investigation that can end only in their self-indictment." But, Steiner added, "it is also not a mere denunciation of white culture. Instead, it is a self-help project meant both to map out new critical territory and to rearrange the territory within." [3]
Reception
In 2016, Time Magazine noted that Playing in the Dark was among Morrison's most-assigned texts on U.S. college campuses, together with several of her novels and her 1993 Nobel Prize lecture, making her one of the most-assigned of all female writers.[4]
External links
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, Harvard University Press
References
- ^ Jimoh, A Yemisi (July 2, 2004). "Toni Morrison: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination". The Literary Encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company Limited. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ Krumholz, Linda (1 January 1996). "Review of Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, ; Folk Roots and Mythic Wings in Sarah Orne Jewett and Toni Morrison: The Cultural Function of Narrative, ; Binding Cultures: Black Women Writers in Africa and the Diaspora, ; Black Looks: Race and Representation". Signs. 22 (1): 243–248. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ Steiner, Wendy (5 April 1992). "The Clearest Eye". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ Johnson, David (February 25, 2016). "These Are the 100 Most-Read Female Writers in College Classes". Time. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
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