Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon (Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations)

One man's search for his identity. The title, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Toni Morrison, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

The mythic patterns Toni Morrison explores in her third novel converge on the transformation of protagonist Milkman Dead. Song of Solomon traces Milkman's journey from spiritual death to an understanding and acceptance of personal responsibility, his liberation symbolized by his discovery of the ability to fly. Caught between his father's materialism and his aunt's sense of family and history, Milkman moves to a greater awareness of his identity and previously untapped spiritual power. This new collection of full-length critical essays includes an introductory essay by literary scholar Harold Bloom, a chronology, a bibliography, an index, and notes about the contributors.

Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations, a series of more than 100 volumes, presents the best current criticism on the most widely read and studied poems, novels, and dramas of the Western world, from Oedipus Rex and The Iliad to such modern and contemporary works as William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and Don DeLillo's White Noise. Each volume opens with an introductory essay and editor's note by Harold Bloom and includes a bibliography, a chronology of the writer's life and works, and notes on the contributors. Taken together, Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations provides a comprehensive critical guide to the most vital and influential works of the Western literary tradition.

Song of Solomon / Trudier Harris Song of Solomon: reality and mythos within the community / Patrick Bryce Bjork "Can't nobody fly with all that shit": the shame-pride axis and black masculinity in Song of Solomon / J. Brooks Bouson Song of Solomon, narrative identity, and the Faulknerian intertext / John N. Duvall Justice and citizenship in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon / Dana Medoro Toni Morrison's revisionary "nature writing": Song of Solomon and the blasted pastoral / Wes Berry William Faulkner reprised: isolation in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon / Lorie Watkins Fulton "Through a glass darkly": typology in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon / Judy Pocock Signifying circe in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon / Judith Fletcher. Contents......Page 6 Editor's Note......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 Song of Solomon......Page 14 Reality and Mythos Within the Community......Page 44 Quiet As It's Kept......Page 66 Song of Solomon, Narrative Identity, and the Faulknerian Intertext......Page 96 Justice and Citizenship......Page 128 Ton Morrison's Revisionary "Nature Writing"......Page 142 William Faulkner Reprised......Page 160 "Through a Glass Darkly"......Page 176 Signifying Circe in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon......Page 192 Chronology......Page 208 Contributors......Page 210 Bibliography......Page 212 Acknowledgments......Page 216 Index......Page 218 Presents critical essays that discuss the language, characters, plot, and major themes of the author's novel about an African-American protagonist's quest for identity.