Alyce Baker

Toni Morrison?s Novels:: the Grotesque As Social, Cultural and Political Aesthetic Alyce Baker

Toni Morrison?s works have been debated, explicated, and theorized in many areas?primarily regarding race, history, culture and gender. However, little discussion exists on the subject of Morrison's use of the grotesque, especially how the grotesque is used a vehicle to discuss social, cultural, and political topics. In Toni Morrison's Novels: The Grotesque as Social, Cultural, and Political Aesthetic, various definitions and applications of the grotesque in art and literature are discussed in general and particular definitions and applications that pertain to Morrison?s novels are discussed and analyzed in terms of roles, functions, and purposes. Discussions and analyses are situated in regard to Morrison?s potential purposes for writing, as well as recurring themes, motifs, and issues. Purposes, such as revealing African American female and adolescent self-hate, exposing oppressive social, cultural, and educational systems that negatively affect African Americans, and showing the paradoxical intersection between love and violence, are explored. Issues and themes such as myth, mothering, beauty and the stimatization and marginalization of blacks are examined as well.