Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn-and one student said, "This book is just bad." That's very different from expressing the opinion "I don't like this book." When we, as a class, tried to tease out what the student thought made the book "bad," it turned out that he was unused to and confused by the nonlinear style. Just last semester I was teaching an American Indian novel-N. This idea of something that's very culturally specific and perhaps gender specific being represented as universal sometimes comes up in my classes. That is also brought up in "Unspeakable Things Unspoken." I often use that article as one of the beginning texts when I teach the Toni Morrison course. She still wants to hold your hand, though, take you through the "bumpy ride," and make it a welcoming experience. The voice that she's using is unflinching. In that passage she talks about the difficult nature of the topics that she's trying to bring to her readers and how she really wants you to hear them. The most important thing is that … learn something by the end of the book that, but for the book, they never would have learned. Sometimes we live so small-I mean in our imaginations (I don’t mean in wealth and status) we live small, frightened lives. The stories are funny, sad, odd combinations that reveal the complexity and the profundity and size of human life. This is not going to be an easy trip the journey is going to be bumpy but I’m gonna tell you the truth and you can hear it because I’ve already been there, and I’m holding your hand, and you can go with me, and it’s going to be alright. The voice is welcoming and doesn’t blink, and tells you very difficult things, but in a voice that makes it alright to hear. Interviewer: an you put some words to that style and to the stories that you’re trying to tell? Here's a clip from a 2001 C-SPAN interview with the author. I love hearing Toni Morrison speak, and I love hearing her speak about her work. She was a Conger-Gabel Teaching Professor from 2001-2004. Professor Anatol has lectured on the works of Toni Morrison to high school students, junior high and high school teachers, and delivered papers on Morrison’s work at academic conferences. She has published an edited collection Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays (Praeger, 2003), and numerous articles on representations of motherhood in Caribbean women’s writing.
Her areas of specialization include contemporary Caribbean women’s literature, African American literature, and children’s literature. Giselle Liza Anatol is an associate professor of English at the University of Kansas.
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