University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2-24-2014 Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison's Fiction Jessica Mckee University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons Scholar Commons Citation Mckee, Jessica, "Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison's Fiction" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5071 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison’s Fiction by Jessica McKee A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Gurleen Grewal, Ph.D. Tova Cooper, Ph.D. Hunt Hawkins, Ph.D. Ylce Irizarry, Ph.D. Date of Approval: February 24, 2014 Keywords: African American literature, justice, memory Copyright © 2014, Jessica McKee ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the people who made this study possible. I must begin with Dr. Gurleen Grewal, whose enduring faith in my ability fueled my drive to complete this project. Her honest reactions to my work propelled my analysis and motivated me to continue, even as life’s obstacles gave me an easy excuse to quit. I would also like to thank Dr. Ylce Irizarry who served on my committee and whose suggestions on an early draft inspired me to focus solely on Morrison. My other committee members, Dr. Hunt Hawkins and Dr. Tova Cooper, provided invaluable advice as this project was first taking form, long ago when I imagined that Morrison would only compose a small part of my dissertation. Dr. Hawkins’s course on postcolonial literature influenced my approach to the material as did my frequent meetings with Dr. Cooper. I am indebted to them for helping formulate the theoretical foundation for my analysis. This dissertation marks the end of a long graduate career, and I would like to extend my gratitude to those professors, colleagues, and friends who made USF a wonderful place to study. I am especially thankful for Dr. Laura Runge’s guidance and Dr. Joe Moxley’s optimism. These professors provided multiple opportunities for professional development, and they facilitated my growth as a scholar and an educator. I would also like to thank the English Department members for their support over the years, specifically Deedra Hickman, Nancy Morris, Nancy Serrano, and Jimmy Suarez. Thanks to Kendra Bryant, Lee Davidson, Debbie McCloud, Kyle Stedman, Jeff Spicer, and Quentin Vieregge—all of whom kept me smiling, even in times of crisis. To Taylor Mitchell, thank you for continuing to inspire me with your grace and intellect. Thanks to WMNF, Tampa’s community-run radio, which kept me entertained and informed during the long days spent in front of the computer. Thanks to Ed Arino, Becca Messinger, and Amanda Reece for their continued friendship and confidence in me. To Benjamin Callahan, thank you for all of the laughter and for all of the love. And finally, I would like to thank my mother and best friend, Molly, who read every novel just to make sure I was getting it right. Without the support of these amazing people, I would not have survived the gauntlet that we call graduate school. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................. ii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ iii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 1 The Triptych at Work ........................................................................................................ 12 CHAPTER ONE: SPECTRAL IMAGININGS OF LOVE AND HOME ..................................................... 19 An American Haunting ...................................................................................................... 21 Ethereal Love ..................................................................................................................... 39 The Hauntings of Home .................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER TWO: ORPHANS IN “THE HOUSE THAT RACE BUILT” ................................................... 64 Here is the House: The Bluest Eye and Sula ...................................................................... 67 Cultural Orphans in Tar Baby and Beloved ....................................................................... 75 At Home in “the House that Race Built” ........................................................................... 79 Bloodlines and Life-lines in A Mercy ................................................................................. 89 CHAPTER THREE: THE LETTER OF THE LAW, THE LAW OF LOVE ................................................ 107 The Intersections of Law and Literature ......................................................................... 112 The In-Law and Outlaws of Tar Baby .............................................................................. 123 “The Newspaper Can Turn Your Mind”: Justice in Jazz .................................................. 138 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................... 148 WORKS CITED .............................................................................................................................. 150 i LIST OF TABLES Table 1: A Brief Register of the Triptych ......................................................................................... 6 ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores Morrison’s most prevalent motifs: the ghost, the orphan, and the outlaw. I argue that each figure advances a critique of dominant narratives, specifically those that comprise history, family, and the law. In the first chapter, I argue that Morrison’s ghost stories contrast two methods of memory, one that is authoritative and another that is imaginative, in order to counter the official renderings of history. Her ghosts signal forgotten aspects of American history and provide access to another storyline, one that lies in the shadows of the novel’s principal narrative. This chapter compares the ghosts of Love and Home in order to show how Morrison uses ghosts as conduits of individual and communal memory. In my second chapter, I assert a reading of Morrison’s orphaned characters as blues figures. The orphan attests to the destructive effects of race, class, and gender oppression, which render her characters biologically and culturally orphaned. I conclude this chapter by comparing Paradise and A Mercy to show the way Morrison’s orphaned characters posit an alternative model of kinship that is built from the shared project of liberation. Chapter Three examines Morrison’s treatment of the law and its foil—the outlaw. I argue that Morrison foregrounds criminality in the absence of the law and its apparatuses (courts, police) in order to subvert the social institutions that give rise to the ghost and the orphan. I compare the crimes at the heart of Tar Baby and Jazz in order to posit another notion of justice that operates in Morrison’s fiction. When looked at together, Morrison’s triptych threatens the coherence of governing ideologies and offers a meditation on the transformative possibilities of narrative. iii INTRODUCTION “Once upon a time. .” So begins the folk tale, the child’s story, and the Nobel Prize acceptance speech of an American author, Toni Morrison. Rather than give a speech proper, Morrison offers a parable, casting herself as the parable’s griot, and her esteemed audience members as the curious children of her story, demanding to know “what is life? What is death?” (204).1 The children’s questions reveal a desperate need for guidance and a longing to understand: “Is there no context for our lives?” the children insist: “No song, no literature, no poem full of vitamins, no history connected to experience . to help us start strong?” (205). The children demand a narrative, a history that explains their experience, but by the parable’s conclusion, the children’s incessant demand becomes a telling of their own. They find in themselves what they sought from the woman: “See how lovely it is. This thing we have done together,” the woman responds (207). Morrison’s fiction, like her parable, hopes to incite the curiosity and inquisitiveness of children seeking to make sense of their lives. Her popularity suggests that her readers crave the telling because, like the children of the parable, they are the starved subjects of under-told stories. Morrison’s imprint on the American literary landscape cannot be ignored. As an editor for Random House, she helped introduce African American writers, such as Angela Davis, Gayl 1 I am indebted to Cheryl Lester for this observation. In “Meditations on a Bird in the Hand: Ethics and Aesthetics in a Parable