Variations on a Theme: The Role of Music in Toni Morrison's Jazz Tone Berre Mastergradsoppgave i litteratur, studieretning engelsk Institutt for kultur og litteraturvitenskap Det humanistiske fakultet Universitetet i Tromsø Høsten 2008 Acknowledgements As I am finishing this thesis, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who have supported and encouraged me through this long and personally challenging process. Without you, this would never have been possible. My deepest and most humble thanks to: - My advisor Laura Castor, without whose knowledge, patience and goodness of heart, I would never have completed this project. I am in lack of words! Thank you also for introducing me to the world of Toni Morrison, and Yoga. - My family, for being who you are, and for letting me be who I am. - My Dad, who has generously supported me, both financially and morally, and therefore deserves special thanks. I don’t know if I will ever be able to repay you. - Øystein, for you love, understanding and for always being there for me. Table of Contents You breathe, your heart beats, quickens with the music’s pulse, and yours… your foot pats, these are the things we don’t even think about. The point then is to move it away from what we already know, toward, into, what we only sense. Music is for the senses. - Amiri Baraka. (Quote taken from The Jazz Cadence…5). Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 - Chapter One - Theory and Method: Music as an Analytical Category....................................5 Black Oral Culture.....................................................................................................................................6 An Ancestral Presence...............................................................................................................................7 Signifyin(g) – An Oral Tradition of Indirection......................................................................................7 Music, Writing and Culture ....................................................................................................................10 Jazz as American Culture........................................................................................................................11 Repetition in Music – A Creative Source of Interplay..........................................................................13 High Culture vs. Low Culture.................................................................................................................14 The Problem of Cultural Differences .....................................................................................................17 The Chorus...............................................................................................................................................18 Call-and-Response – A Collective Dialogue .........................................................................................19 Huck Finn, the Black Oral Tradition and Toni Morrison .....................................................................20 Black Women – Sources of Cultural and Literary Strength .................................................................22 The Voices of Slave Narratives ..............................................................................................................23 The Harlem Renaissance and the Search for Identity ...........................................................................24 The Rise of Female Voices .....................................................................................................................25 The Womanist Ideology of Wholeness ..................................................................................................26 An Approach to Folk Form.....................................................................................................................27 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................................28 - Chapter Two - African American Culture, History and the Musical- and Literary Tradition ......................................................................................................................29 African Culture in America.....................................................................................................................29 Folklore and the Contemporary Black Writer .......................................................................................30 The Legacy of Slave Narratives and Spiritual Autobiographies for Women ......................................31 “Orality” and Music in African American Writing...............................................................................32 African American Musical History and Development..........................................................................33 Early Secular Song ..................................................................................................................................34 Call-and-Response in Song.....................................................................................................................35 Work Songs and the Communal Spirit...................................................................................................35 The Blues as both Individual and Communal Expression ....................................................................36 Jazz – Music for the Community............................................................................................................38 The Interrelationship between Music and African American Writing.................................................39 Contemporary Black Women Writers and the Challenging of Stereotypes ........................................40 The Traditional, Spiritual Black Woman and the Legacy of Voice .....................................................42 Orality as a Carrier of Culture ................................................................................................................43 Importance of Song in Writing ......................................................................................................... .....44 The Importance of Memory (and Myth) ................................................................................................45 The Black Female Expression in Toni Morrison’s Novels...................................................................46 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................................47 - Chapter Three - Characterization – From Fragmentation to Wholeness with Music ..........48 The Interplay between Voices in Music and Literature ........................................................................48 Reader as Musician..................................................................................................................................50 Music as Healer .......................................................................................................................................51 A Couple of Traces..................................................................................................................................52 Joe – The Blues Man ...............................................................................................................................53 Re-memory and Identity..........................................................................................................................54 Transformation of Culture and Identity .................................................................................................55 Joe’s Fragmented Identity and the Healing and Transforming Qualities of Music ............................56 Golden Gray and the Problem of Blackness ..........................................................................................58 Violent Violet...........................................................................................................................................60 Violet and Alice - Healing through Sisterhood .....................................................................................61 Feminine Potential...................................................................................................................................63 More on Alice ..........................................................................................................................................63 Dilemmas of Female Identity..................................................................................................................64 Evidence of Humanity.............................................................................................................................66 The Female Power as Ancestor ..............................................................................................................67 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................................68 - Chapter Four - Music and Text: Structural Connections ...................................................69 Chapter Structure – Variation and Improvisation..................................................................................69 Morrison’s Narrative as Historical and Musical Document .................................................................70