As with last week, it seems almost impossible to write just a short blog post about half of Beloved and its relationship with Inferno - not to mention all the important points about the novel that are not immediately relevant to Dante connections!
"Beloved is a classic American novel by one of the greatest novelists of our time, Toni Morrison. It is also The Stacks Book Club pick this week, and we are lucky to have author and scholar DaMaris B. Hill (A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing) to help us break it down. We talk about the legacy of slavery on Black Americans, how to discuss great works that we don’t personally enjoy, intimacy as it relates to insanity, and Pulitzer Prize controversy."
This is the perspective on the novel from 2 high school English teachers and they pair some more contemporary books that would pair well with Beloved.
Episode description form their website below!
"Today Chelsey and Sara are chatting about Beloved by Toni Morrison. This American masterpiece and 1988 Pulitzer winner tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped from slavery to find freedom for herself and her children, only to be haunted by the traumas of her past. It’s a story of motherhood, womanhood, freedom, and redemption, and Morrison’s genius and language are incomparable."
The last chapter was a little puzzling for me and I had to think on it for a while to unpack what Morrison was trying to convey there (or at least make a guess). The narrator tells us several times that "it was not a story to pass on". These last few pages reiterate that the people personally involved with Beloved needed to forget her in order to move on - "remembering seemed unwise". Beloved, who represents the haunting past, was necessary to help Sethe face her trauma. Once Beloved served her purpose, she disappeared to hopefully allow Sethe the opportunity to heal. I'm with your seminar students on this one. I am hopeful that Sethe and Paul D. can have that happy ending after all the pain that they've had to endure.
In contrast, Morrison writing this novel contradicts the statement that "it was not a story to pass on". Her intention could have been to say that for those personally connected to slavery, these stories are often too painful and traumatic to speak of. This resonates closely with the issues facing us at this very moment - these stories are painful and traumatic but they are also necessary to bring us to a better place. Her dedication to the "Sixty Million and more" seems to further prove this point for me.
One of the connections between Inferno and Beloved that kept arising for me was the theme of mental health. I know we talked earlier in the summer about Inferno's "advanced for the time" perspective on mental health and I has some similar thoughts for this text. In Beloved, it is clear to me that Morrison is highlighting the processing of trauma as a way to mental liberation; bottling up past pain and trauma does not lead to a healthy way of life. Beloved's ghost returned with a vengeance forcing Sethe to face her inner pain and guilt. Denver surely benefits from this, seeing as she now leaves the house and has seemingly positive connections in the community whereas before, as a result of her mother's isolation, she was alone and afraid of her own mother. This is yet another reason as to why I am hopeful for Sethe to finally find her happiness.
I am moving on to read Jazz this fall - I am eager to see where the second part of the "trilogy" takes me.
Thank you for this book group this summer, Dr. D. It has been fun and enlightening as your classes have always been.
You have articulated the paradox perfectly -- it is not a story to pass on, and yet Morrison has written it and passed it on to us.......
One very cool point that pops up in a lot of the criticism is that the physical book itself can stand for the tomb stone - that it is a block with the word "BELOVED" carved into the front of it.....I always find that point a lot to think about.
Thank YOU for all good points over the summer! Enjoy Jazz!
Also, there are 2 podcasts that I listened to on Beloved which I really loved and thought I'd share.
Episode 60 of the Stacks Podcast - https://thestackspodcast.com/2019/05/21/ep-60-beloved/
Episode description from their website below!
"Beloved is a classic American novel by one of the greatest novelists of our time, Toni Morrison. It is also The Stacks Book Club pick this week, and we are lucky to have author and scholar DaMaris B. Hill (A Bound Woman is a Dangerous Thing) to help us break it down. We talk about the legacy of slavery on Black Americans, how to discuss great works that we don’t personally enjoy, intimacy as it relates to insanity, and Pulitzer Prize controversy."
AND
Novel Pairings - https://novelpairings.libsyn.com/6-toni-morrisons-beloved-the-great-american-novel-and-books-inspired-by-morrison
This is the perspective on the novel from 2 high school English teachers and they pair some more contemporary books that would pair well with Beloved.
Episode description form their website below!
"Today Chelsey and Sara are chatting about Beloved by Toni Morrison. This American masterpiece and 1988 Pulitzer winner tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped from slavery to find freedom for herself and her children, only to be haunted by the traumas of her past. It’s a story of motherhood, womanhood, freedom, and redemption, and Morrison’s genius and language are incomparable."
Thanks for the links!
The last chapter was a little puzzling for me and I had to think on it for a while to unpack what Morrison was trying to convey there (or at least make a guess). The narrator tells us several times that "it was not a story to pass on". These last few pages reiterate that the people personally involved with Beloved needed to forget her in order to move on - "remembering seemed unwise". Beloved, who represents the haunting past, was necessary to help Sethe face her trauma. Once Beloved served her purpose, she disappeared to hopefully allow Sethe the opportunity to heal. I'm with your seminar students on this one. I am hopeful that Sethe and Paul D. can have that happy ending after all the pain that they've had to endure.
In contrast, Morrison writing this novel contradicts the statement that "it was not a story to pass on". Her intention could have been to say that for those personally connected to slavery, these stories are often too painful and traumatic to speak of. This resonates closely with the issues facing us at this very moment - these stories are painful and traumatic but they are also necessary to bring us to a better place. Her dedication to the "Sixty Million and more" seems to further prove this point for me.
One of the connections between Inferno and Beloved that kept arising for me was the theme of mental health. I know we talked earlier in the summer about Inferno's "advanced for the time" perspective on mental health and I has some similar thoughts for this text. In Beloved, it is clear to me that Morrison is highlighting the processing of trauma as a way to mental liberation; bottling up past pain and trauma does not lead to a healthy way of life. Beloved's ghost returned with a vengeance forcing Sethe to face her inner pain and guilt. Denver surely benefits from this, seeing as she now leaves the house and has seemingly positive connections in the community whereas before, as a result of her mother's isolation, she was alone and afraid of her own mother. This is yet another reason as to why I am hopeful for Sethe to finally find her happiness.
I am moving on to read Jazz this fall - I am eager to see where the second part of the "trilogy" takes me.
Thank you for this book group this summer, Dr. D. It has been fun and enlightening as your classes have always been.
You have articulated the paradox perfectly -- it is not a story to pass on, and yet Morrison has written it and passed it on to us.......
One very cool point that pops up in a lot of the criticism is that the physical book itself can stand for the tomb stone - that it is a block with the word "BELOVED" carved into the front of it.....I always find that point a lot to think about.
Thank YOU for all good points over the summer! Enjoy Jazz!