Introduction to Toni Morrison
First and foremost, Toni Morrison writes as a black woman with the audience of black women in mind.  Though many of the themes, emotions and motivational elements present in her works apply to all people, Morrison works to invert and dispel many of the stereotypes present in writings by and about black women.  Morrison herself claims that one of her motivations for writing as a black woman writer is to allow her fellow black women to "repossess, re-name, [and] re-own."
 
In particular, Morrison has helped black women "repossess" their identities by creating characters who not only go against typical white American stereotypes of black females, but also who illustrate many of the overlooked strengths and characteristics of black womanhood.  For instance, Morrison's works often concern themselves with fleshing out and thus denying the stereotype of the nurturing, content "black Mammy."  Instead of presenting a black mother in this pat way, Morrison illuminates the psychological and emotional elements of motherhood in the context of the African-American struggle.
 
Morrison's writing is also characterized by its unique way of dealing with narrative.  Instead of using straightforward narration and clear chronology, Morrison often plays with the order of scenes and the ways narration is presented.  The narrator may change frequently, or the narrator may be separate from the person through which the reader is currently viewing the action.

The narrative in Morrison's work is also not always realistic.  Morrison incorporates elements of myth, legend, passion, obsession, superstition, religion, nature, and the supernatural.  Though she rejects the label of magical realism because it denies a clear cultural influence, many aspects of her novels are characterized by elements of fantasy.
 
The first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, Morrison has been lauded by critics and colleagues alike.  Her works have been seen not only as exemplifying the struggle of a particular people, but also as illustrating the problems and emotions of all human beings.  She is admired for her use of language and her interesting narrative devices.

Biographical Timeline
1931
--Feb. 18-Morrison is born in Lorain, Ohio.  Her birth name is Chloe Anthony Wofford.
1949
--Morrison graduates from Lorain High School with honors.  She was one of the only black students in a predominantly white school.
--Morrison begins studying at Howard University.  She takes part in the Howard University Players, who travel to the south and open her eyes to the conditions of African-Americans there.
--Morrison changes her first name to Toni, after frequent mispronunciation of her true name.
1953
--Morrison graduates from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts in English, and a minor in classics.
1955
--Morrison graduates from Cornell University with a Master of Arts degree.
--Texas Southern University offers Morrison a teaching position.
1957
--Morrison takes a teaching position at Howard University.  She teaches many future civil rights leaders, including Stokely Carmichael, Andrew Young, and author Claude Brown.
1958
--Morrison meets and marries Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect.
1961
--Harold Ford, Morrison's first son, is born.
1964
--Harold and Toni Morrison divorce after having two sons.
--Random House textbooks in Syracuse, New York, appoints Toni an associate editor.
1967
--Morrison becomes a senior editor at Random House in New York City.
1970
--The Bluest Eye, Morrison's first novel, is published.  Based on a short story she wrote in the mid-1960s, it is welcomed with great critical reviews but little commercial success.
1971
--The State University of New York at Purchase makes Morrison an associate professor of English.
1973
--Sula, her second novel, is published.  The novel centered on the friendship between two adult black women.  It becomes an alternate selection for the Book-of-the-Month club and has excerpts published Redbook.
1975
--Sula is nominated for the National Book Award for fiction and receives the Ohioana Book Award.
1976
--Morrison becomes a visiting lecturer at Yale University.
1977
--Song of Solomon, a novel focusing on black males, is published.
--Song of Solomon wins the National Book Critics Circle Award and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award.
--President Carter appoints Morrison to the National Council on the Arts.
1981
--Tar Baby, a novel dealing primarily with black/white interactions, is published.
--March 30-Morrison's picture appears on the cover of Newsweek.
1983
--Morrison leaves her editorial job at Random House.
1984
--The State University of New York in Albany names Morrison the Albert Schweitzer Professor of the Humanities.
1986
--January 4-Dreaming Emmett, Morrison's first play, premieres in Albany at the Marketplace Theater.  The play is written about the murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager killed by whites in Mississippi after being accused of flirting with a white woman.
1987
--Beloved is published.  The novel is written about Margaret Garner, a slave who escaped in 1851 with her children and, when recaptured, attempted to kill her children rather than return them to a life of slavery.
--Morrison becomes the first black woman writer to hold a named chair at an Ivy League university, as she is named the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University.
--Beloved earns Morrison the New York State Governor's Arts Award, the first Washington College Literary award, a National Book Award nomination, and a National Book Critics Circle Award nomination.
1988
--Morrison wins the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Beloved.  The same year, she is given the Robert F. Kennedy Award for the novel.
1992
--Jazz, Morrison's novel about life in the 1920s, is published.
--Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination is published.  This is a critical work of how race plays into the reader/writer relationship.
1993
--Morrison is given the Nobel Prize in Literature and is the first black woman to receive it.
--Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, a collection of critical essays edited by Morrison, is published.
1998
--A film version of Beloved appears in theaters, starring Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover.

Bibliography of Works and Awards

Novels:
--The Bluest Eye, 1969
--Sula, 1973
--Song of Solomon, 1977
--Tar Baby, 1981
--Beloved, 1987
--Jazz, 1992

Plays:
--Dreaming Emmett, 1986

Other Works:
--Playing in the Dark:  Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, 1992

Awards:
--National Book Award nomination for Sula, 1975
--Ohioana Book Award for Sula, 1975
--National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon, 1977
--American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Song of Solomon, 1977
--New York State Governor's Arts Award for Beloved, 1987
--Washington College Literary award for Beloved, 1987
--National Book Award nomination for Beloved, 1987
--National Book Critics Circle Award nomination for Beloved, 1987
--Pulitzer Prize in fiction for Beloved, 1988
--Robert F. Kennedy Award for Beloved, 1988
--Nobel Prize for Literature, 1993

Educational Web Sites
--http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~mmaynard/Morrison/biograph.html
-A fairly comprehensive website on Morrison's life.  Includes notes on works and life in bulleted form.  Also includes quotes from Morrison and critics of Morrison's works.  Good for a brief overview.
--http://www.netsrq.com/~dbois/morrison.html
-A very rich biography of Morrison's life.  Good for an in-depth look at Morrison's works and life.
--http://www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorrison/toni.htm
-A website devoted to Morrison's novels and critical reviews.  The website offers in-depth looks at each of Morrison's major works, plus some biographical information on Morrison.  It is called "Anniina's Toni Morrison Page."

Works Consulted Outside of the Web
--Peach, Linden.  Toni Morrison.  New York:  St. Martin's Press, 1995.

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