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Class
Prep
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- Toni
Morrison's Sula
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- Toni Morrison's 1973 novel, Sula, is not an apocalyptic
work per se. Like many modern novelists, the author utilizes
apocalyptic elements in a social critique of the present, although
this level of commentary is cloaked in a story set decades earlier.
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- As you read Morrison's novel, keep track of techniques and features that appear to you to be apocalyptic. Try to do this before reading Montgomery's essay, which introduces some new elements to our apocalyptic paradigm.
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- A central question we will want to address as we discuss this
novel is this: How have apocalyptic techniques and features been
adapted in this modern piece, and to what effect? Is Sula, the
protagonist of the story, a contemporary version of Daniel? Or
is she more akin to the divine mediator figures in the classic
apocalyptic texts? Are there other characters in the story reminiscent
of 1 Enoch of Daniel? Is the plotting (manipulation of time, sequence of action) evocative of classic apocalyptic texts?
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- Assigned Readings
- Primary: Morrison, Sula, 67-174
- Secondary: Montgomery, "Toni Morrison, Sula" (ERes)
- Optional: Baker, "Freedom and Apocalypse: A Thematic
Approach to Black Expression" (ERes)
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- Further Reading
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- See also the section of the Course Bibliography on Literary Studies of Apocalyptic Themes & Motifs.
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- Links
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- Sources
- Photograph: Thomas Blackshear (illustration), Melissa Jacoby (cover design). From the cover of the Plume paperback, 1982.
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