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- Title
"To Manipulate American English": Toni Morrison's Word-Work as a Practice of Freedom.
- Authors
Balfour, Lawrie
- Abstract
This essay considers the idea of freedom through the prism of Toni Morrison's twinned aspirations to remake American English and to "transfigure the complexity and wealth of Afro-American culture into a language worthy of the culture." Although she is celebrated as a novelist and literary critic, Morrison's political thought has yet to receive its due. Focusing on her nonfiction writing from 1971 to 2019, I investigate how Morrison interprets the conjunction of freedom, colonization, and slavery in the language through which she writes. And I highlight her innovative uses of two of the most contested terms of political thought—sovereignty and territory—to conceive practices of freedom that do not rely on the conquest or subjugation of others.
- Subjects
MORRISON, Toni, 1931-2019; AMERICAN English language; BRITISH Americans; POLITICAL philosophy; NONFICTION writing; LIBERTY
- Publication
American Quarterly, 2021, Vol 73, Issue 3, p1
- ISSN
0003-0678
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/aq.2021.0040