James Baldwin and Toni Morrison Comparative Critical and Theoretical Essays

This collection of comparative critical and theoretical essays examines the reciprocal literary relationship between James Baldwin and Toni Morrison on topics ranging from their use of jazz and the blues, to their critiques of whiteness and their brilliant analyses of America's racial politics. In particular, the essays note those points of convergence and divergence between the two authors and also point to instances where one author signifies on the work of the other or takes up and expands a discussion where the other left off. Contributors range from well-established senior scholars, Trudier Harris and E. Frances White, to emerging international scholars, Anna Kerchy and Keren Omry.

Lovalerie King is an Assistant Professor of African American Language and Literature at The Pennsylvania State University-University Park. Her publications include A Students’ Guide to African American Literature (2003) and numerous essays, articles, and reviews appearing in collections, journals, and reference volumes such as Critical Essays on Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Black Women Playwrights: Visions on the American Stage, MELUS, CALLALOO, African American Review, The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel, The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, and others. Her current projects include an introduction to Zora Neale Hurston, a co-edited collection of essays on the African American novel, and a monograph tentatively titled Property Matters in African American Literature (scheduled for release in 2007).
 
Lynn Orilla Scott is a Visiting Assistant Professor at James Madison College and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture at Michigan State University. Her publications include James Baldwin’s Later Fiction (2002) and several articles and essays on African American and American literature.

Introduction--Lovalerie King & Lynn Orilla Scott * Watchers Watching Watchers: Positioning Characters and Readers in Baldwin’s "Sonny’s Blues" and Morrison’s "Recitatif"--Trudier Harris * Playing a Mean Guitar: The Legacy of Staggerlee in Baldwin and Morrison--Quentin Miller * Baldwin’s Bop n’Morrison’s Mood: Bebop and Race in James Baldwin’s Another Country and Toni Morrison’s Jazz--Keren Omry * Narrating the Beat of the Heart, Jazzing the Text of Desire: A Comparative Interface of James Baldwin’s Another Country and Toni Morrison’s Jazz--Anna Kérchy * Unseen or Unspeakable? Racial Evidence in Baldwin and Morrison's Non-fiction--Richard Schur * James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: White Work--Jonathan Mirin * Property, Race, and Ethics in the Fiction of Baldwin and Morrison--Lovalerie King * History and Memory in Go Tell It on the Mountain and Beloved--Babacar M'Baye * Refiguring the Flesh: The Word, The Body and The Rituals of Being in Beloved and Go Tell It on the Mountain--Carol Evette Henderson* The Evidence of Things Not Seen: The Alchemy of Race and Sexuality--E. Frances White * The Theme of Incest in Baldwin and Morrison--Lynn Orilla Scott * Revising Revision: Methodologies of Love, Desire, and Resistance in Beloved and If Beale Street Could Talk--Michelle Phillips * The Theme of Love in Baldwin and Morrison--Wilfred Samuels * Treatment of the Black Church in Baldwin and Morrison--Keith Byerman * Coming into Her Own: The Women of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--Jocelyn Chadwick * James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: A History of Interaction--Marilyn Atlas Introduction--Lovalerie King & Lynn Orilla Scott * Watchers Watching Watchers: Positioning Characters and Readers in Baldwin’s "Sonny’s Blues" and Morrison’s "Recitatif"--Trudier Harris * Playing a Mean Guitar: The Legacy of Staggerlee in Baldwin and Morrison--Quentin Miller * Baldwin’s Bop n’Morrison’s Mood: Bebop and Race in James Baldwin’s Another Country and Toni Morrison’s Jazz--Keren Omry * Narrating the Beat of the Heart, Jazzing the Text of Desire: A Comparative Interface of James Baldwin’s Another Country and Toni Morrison’s Jazz--Anna Kérchy * Unseen or Unspeakable? Racial Evidence in Baldwin and Morrison's Non-fiction--Richard Schur * James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: White Work--Jonathan Mirin * Property, Race, and Ethics in the Fiction of Baldwin and Morrison--Lovalerie King * History and Memory in Go Tell It on the Mountain and Beloved--Babacar M'Baye * Refiguring the Flesh: The Word, The Body and The Rituals of Being in Beloved and Go Tell It on the Mountain--Carol Evette Henderson* The Evidence of Things Not Seen: The Alchemy of Race and Sexuality--E. Frances White * The Theme of Incest in Baldwin and Morrison--Lynn Orilla Scott * Revising Revision: Methodologies of Love, Desire, and Resistance in Beloved and If Beale Street Could Talk--Michelle Phillips * The Theme of Love in Baldwin and Morrison--Wilfred Samuels * Treatment of the Black Church in Baldwin and Morrison--Keith Byerman * Coming into Her Own: The Women of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--Jocelyn Chadwick * James Baldwin and Toni Morrison: A History of Interaction--Marilyn Atlas