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Toni Morrison

Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination Paperback – July 27, 1993

by Toni Morrison (Author)

425 ratings

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An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature.

Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune, Morrison "reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." Her brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition.

Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

Print length

91 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

July 27, 1993
Dimensions

5.17 x 0.33 x 7.97 inches
ISBN-10

0679745424
ISBN-13

978-0679745426
Lexile measure

1260L
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Novelist Morrison takes a turn as a literary critic, examining the American literary imagination and finding it obsessed with the white/black polarity.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A profound redefinition of American cultural identity."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"By going for the American literary jugular...she places her arguments...at the very heart of contemporary public conversation about what it is to be authentically and originally American. [She] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." --Chicago Tribune

"Toni Morrison is the closest thing the country has to a national writer." --The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

"A profound redefinition of American cultural identity."--Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Inside Flap

Prize-winning author of Beloved and Jazz now gives us a learned, stylish, and immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that promises to change the way we read American literature even as it opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race.

Toni Morrison's brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.

Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of America

From the Back Cover

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Beloved and "Jazz now gives us a learned, stylish, and immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that promises to change the way we read American literature even as it opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race.
Toni Morrison's brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly "unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.
Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature.
"By going for the American literary jugular...she places her arguments...at the very heart of contemporary public conversation about what it is to be authentically and originally American. [She] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America."
"--Chicago Tribune
"Toni Morrison is the closest thing the country has to a national writer."
"The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (July 27, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 91 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679745424
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679745426
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1260L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.17 x 0.33 x 7.97 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #27,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Black & African American Literary Criticism (Books)
- #143 in Literary Criticism & Theory
- #205 in African American Demographic Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
425 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		85%
4 star		10%
3 star		3%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Yvette

Amazing read!

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2019

Verified Purchase

Toni Morrison did nothing short of blow my mind with this book. It’s a short read, but SO MUCH IS SAID that one feels full and completely submerged in her analysis throughout the book. One of the most interesting reads I’ve come across in a long time. Highly recommend, not only for supporters and admirers of Toni, but anyone interested in the unspoken complexities of American Literature and the dynamics of American culture in a historical context.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sallie Reynolds

Turgid

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

I love Toni Morrison. I love her fiction. This is not fiction, however, it's a lecture. I've head (and read) hundreds of lectures, seldom any as incomprehensible as this one. I was going to quote two lines and ask you what they meant. But really, just let the book fall open anywhere. The best part of this is the cover photograph of Morrison. Gorgeous.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

nellyd

Considering the Black Gaze

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

Love this analysis of American Literature. Morrison expertly breaks down American Literary classics and obscure texts to reveal the presence of the "other" which she calls American Africanism. Her claim is that this presence is apparent in most if not all American literature regardless of whether there are raced characters or not. She provides a lens for examining American Literature that renders the texts more complex and more relevant for further study. Personally, I find her reading of Huck Finn alone is worth makes this text exemplary.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sea Stachura

This is an excellent starting point for a conversation white writers of fiction ...

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2017

Verified Purchase

After reading this, follow it up with her lectures at Harvard (on YouTube) as well as Claudia Rankine's The Racial Imaginary. This is an excellent starting point for a conversation white writers of fiction and poetry need to have with themselves and their perceptions of "the cannon."

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Fal

A must read

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

I first read an excerpt of this particular work by Morrison in an American Literature course I took in college. Ever since then, I’ve been increasingly intrigued by her prose, as well as her own literary theory.

This is a short work but it’s a great read; exploring dense questions that are still being constructed and reconstructed today.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Samina Ali

should be required for all english majors

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2018

Verified Purchase

a must read

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pamela J Blair

A Difficult Read, but Worth It

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

Morrison writes in a very different voice when she’s being professorial, which she is in this book. But her point is both thought-provoking and timely, given the recent controversy over American Dirt.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Mahaliah Little

Keen Literary Criticism & Critical Race Commentary @ Its Finest.

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2017

Verified Purchase

Morrison is a master of fiction, of literary criticism, & of the analysis of racially-motivated/biased behavior. This collection of essays reflects each one of the aforementioned skills. Love everything she puts a pen or keyboard stroke to. She is a treasure. This is a resource I come back to over and over again!

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

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Archyateaslug

Illuminating collection of essays

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

A short work containing versions of three lectures originally delivered at Harvard in 1990; in which Toni Morrison discusses the significance of the ‘black’ presence on the ‘white’ literary imagination. Her discussion draws on close readings of work by a range of American writers including: Willa Cather’s ‘Sapphira and the Slave Girl’, Hemingway’s ‘To Have and Have Not’, Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’. Her textual analysis, combined with her wider insights into literature produced in a ‘racialised’ society, makes for illuminating reading: for instance on the significance of the ‘othering’ of the African-American in ‘white’ literature, often appearing (or assumed) as the ‘enslaved’ figure representing the ‘not-free’ and the ‘not me’ against which notions of 'universal' liberty are constructed. Her discussion of specific texts such as Cather’s novel are particularly striking.

One person found this helpful

Pete Kalu

So much to think about in this book, a ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2017

Verified Purchase

So much to think about in this book, a game-changer when it comes to reader theory esp her writerly approach to answering knotty questions on raciailised societies as reflected in US literature.

Cliente Amazon

ottimo acquisto

Reviewed in Italy on December 28, 2015

Verified Purchase

il libro è in ottime condizioni ed è arrivato entro il tempo previsto.
per quanto riguarda il contenuto, questo saggio scritto direttamente da Morrison mi è stato di vero aiuto per la stesura della mia tesi riguardante la letteratura afro-americana.

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Pirjo Ahokas

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

Perfect½

allan govedo

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

Thank you

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