ENG 20100: Toni Morrison: Sula
For information about individual authors, enter a Subject search on the author: last name, first name. Most of the critical material will be found under the subheading “Criticism and interpretation,” but many other subheadings are possible for an author. Here is the range for Morrison, Toni:
Morrison, Toni.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
Morrison, Toni--Characters--Mothers.
Morrison, Toni--Characters--Slaves.
Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Africa.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Psychology.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Religion.
Morrison, Toni--Musical settings.
Morrison, Toni--Political and social views.
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon.
Morrison, Toni--Spirtualistic interpretations.
Morrison, Toni. Sula.
Morrison, Toni--Symbolism.
Morrison, Toni. Tar baby.
Morrison, Toni--Technique.
Always run an Author search on an individual writer you’re researching. Although you may already have the text or texts you’ll be focusing on, Author searches often turn up interesting materials that can’t be accessed through Subject searches. An Author search on Morrison, Toni retrieves a new edition of a novel, an adaptation, and and a range of non-fiction:
Much of the most recent and authoritative criticism on an author, as well as materials with a period or topic focus, may be best accessed using broad, categorical Subject headings. Below is a cross-section of Subject headings that could be useful for research on an African American author in the second half of the 20th century writing about African American characters in the first half of the 20th century.
American literature
American literature--History and criticism
American literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
American literature--20th century--History and criticism
American fiction--20th century--History and criticism
Fiction--20th century--History and criticism
American literature--African American authors
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc
African American women authors
Race in literature
Race relations in literature
Racism in literature
Blacks in literature
African Americans in literature
African American men in literature
African American women in literature
Racially mixed people in literature
African Americans
African Americans--Attitudes
African Americans--Civil rights
African Americans--Civil rights--History
African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century
African Americans--Economic conditions--20th century
African Americans--History--1877-1964
African Americans--Intellectual life
African Americans--Land tenure--History
African Americans--Languages
African Americans--Communication
Black English--United States
African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc.--History
African Americans--Psychology
African Americans--Race identity
African Americans--Religion
African Americans--Segregation
African Americans--Social conditions
African Americans--Social conditions--20th century
African Americans--Ohio River Valley--Social conditions.
African American soldiers--History--20th century
African American women
African American women--History--20th century
African American women--Intellectual life
African American women--Psychology
African American women--Social conditions
Race awareness--United States
Race discrimination--United States
Race discrimination--United States--History--20th century
Race discrimination--Ohio--History
Racism--United States
Racism--United States--History--20th century
United States--Civilization--1918-1945
Morrison, Toni.
Morrison, Toni. Beloved.
Morrison, Toni--Characters--Mothers.
Morrison, Toni--Characters--Slaves.
Morrison, Toni--Criticism and interpretation.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Africa.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Psychology.
Morrison, Toni--Knowledge--Religion.
Morrison, Toni--Musical settings.
Morrison, Toni--Political and social views.
Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon.
Morrison, Toni--Spirtualistic interpretations.
Morrison, Toni. Sula.
Morrison, Toni--Symbolism.
Morrison, Toni. Tar baby.
Morrison, Toni--Technique.
Always run an Author search on an individual writer you’re researching. Although you may already have the text or texts you’ll be focusing on, Author searches often turn up interesting materials that can’t be accessed through Subject searches. An Author search on Morrison, Toni retrieves a new edition of a novel, an adaptation, and and a range of non-fiction:
- The bluest eye / Toni Morrison, with a new afterword by the author.
- Beloved [videorecording] / directed by Jonathan Demme
- Remember : the journey to school integration / Toni Morrison.
- Birth of a nation'hood : gaze, script, and spectacle in the O.J. Simpson case / edited by Toni Morrison and Claudia Brodsky Lacour ; introduction by Toni Morrison.
- Race-ing justice, en-gendering power : essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the construction of social reality / edited and with an introduction by Toni Morrison.
- Playing in the dark : whiteness and the literary imagination / Toni Morrison
- Burn this book : PEN writers speak out on the power of the word / edited by Toni Morrison
- Lecture and speech of acceptance, upon the award of the Nobel prize for literature, delivered in Stockholm on the seventh of December, nineteen hundred and ninety-three / Toni Morrison.
Much of the most recent and authoritative criticism on an author, as well as materials with a period or topic focus, may be best accessed using broad, categorical Subject headings. Below is a cross-section of Subject headings that could be useful for research on an African American author in the second half of the 20th century writing about African American characters in the first half of the 20th century.
American literature
American literature--History and criticism
American literature--History and criticism--Theory, etc.
American literature--20th century--History and criticism
American fiction--20th century--History and criticism
Fiction--20th century--History and criticism
American literature--African American authors
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism
American literature--African American authors--History and criticism--Theory, etc
African American women authors
Race in literature
Race relations in literature
Racism in literature
Blacks in literature
African Americans in literature
African American men in literature
African American women in literature
Racially mixed people in literature
African Americans
African Americans--Attitudes
African Americans--Civil rights
African Americans--Civil rights--History
African Americans--Civil rights--History--20th century
African Americans--Economic conditions--20th century
African Americans--History--1877-1964
African Americans--Intellectual life
African Americans--Land tenure--History
African Americans--Languages
African Americans--Communication
Black English--United States
African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc.--History
African Americans--Psychology
African Americans--Race identity
African Americans--Religion
African Americans--Segregation
African Americans--Social conditions
African Americans--Social conditions--20th century
African Americans--Ohio River Valley--Social conditions.
African American soldiers--History--20th century
African American women
African American women--History--20th century
African American women--Intellectual life
African American women--Psychology
African American women--Social conditions
Race awareness--United States
Race discrimination--United States
Race discrimination--United States--History--20th century
Race discrimination--Ohio--History
Racism--United States
Racism--United States--History--20th century
United States--Civilization--1918-1945
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
JSTOR has excellent 100% full-text coverage of literary scholarship. There is no Subject searching, so remember to put titles and authors' names in quotation marks to search them as Keyword phrases--and leave authors' names in the normal first-name last-name order. Set "Limit" to "Article"--or else you may unleash an avalanche of reviews of books on your topic.
JSTOR access to journal articles begins 2-4 years prior to the present--so don't look for any criticism from the last couple of years--but coverage always extends back to the first issue of each journal--in some cases into the 19th century and beyond.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse offers a basic keyword search (be sure to put the titles of literary works in quotation marks). Once you've retrieved a set of articles you can sort them into broad categories using the Research Area options on the left.
Note: Checking the "Articles" box under Content Type before you run a search will eliminate reviews of books about your topic and leave you with just the articles on your topic.
ProQuest Research Library & Academic Search Premier are comprehensive databases and include considerable literary criticism--much of it full text. In running searches on authors, don't settle for a Keyword search on the author's name, as this will retrieve too many articles in which the author is only mentioned in passing. Instead use the specialized Subject search each provides. In ProQest enter the name, last name first, in the "Person" slot. In Academic Search Premier open the "Select a Field" drop down menu and search the name, last name first, in the "People" field.
In both ProQuest the titles of literary works must be searched as Keyword phrases, so be sure to put them in quotation marks. In Academic Search Premier search the title of a novel followed by the word "book" in the "Reviews and Products" field (this retrieves literary criticism, not just reviews).
In both databases you can set a "Document Type" limit and choose "Book review" or, if it's a contemporary writer, "Interview." (For a contemporary writer you might also try an "Author" search, since many writers publish criticism and social commentary that might shed light on their creative work.)
General OneFile is another comprehensive database with considerable literary criticism, but the default Subject search forcess you to retrieve EVERYTHING on a particular author. The standard "subdivisions" by which General OneFile organizes these results--"Ethical Aspects," Political Aspects," "Social Aspects"--are broad in respect to authors.
If you wish to focus on a particular a theme, the best strategy is to open all the results from the initial Subject search and then use the the "Search within these Results" slot at the upper left to enter thematic Keywords.
If you wish to focus on a specific literary work, open "Advanced Search" and in the "Select Index" box choose "Named Work": this allows you to run a Subject search on a title.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) is an Education database where you can find many scholarly articles on the interpretation and teaching of literary texts at the levels of both secondary and higher education.
New York Times (1851-2009) offers the full text of the New York Times from 1851 up to 2006, so you can access contemporary reviews of The Bluest Eye and Sula as well as trace the arc of Morrison's considerable literary celebrity. Enter a Keyword search, putting phrases in quotation marks. You might begin by searching in the “Anywhere except full text” field, then, if this doesn’t yield enough results, expand to the “Anywhere” field. And Morrison was sufficiently written about over the entire course of her career that you may want to target particular decades by using the date range limits below the search slots.
Literary Reference Center : Aside from some Cliff Notes-type summaries of Sula, there is surprsingly little here, but it does offer the full text of an essay Morrison published in Grand Street in 1991: Black Matter(s).
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
If you set up a free "My Research" account with Proquest (top right), you can save all the articles you check, all the searches you want to remember, and set up e-mail or RSS notification for any new articles that match your search terms.
JSTOR has excellent 100% full-text coverage of literary scholarship. There is no Subject searching, so remember to put titles and authors' names in quotation marks to search them as Keyword phrases--and leave authors' names in the normal first-name last-name order. Set "Limit" to "Article"--or else you may unleash an avalanche of reviews of books on your topic.
JSTOR access to journal articles begins 2-4 years prior to the present--so don't look for any criticism from the last couple of years--but coverage always extends back to the first issue of each journal--in some cases into the 19th century and beyond.
Project Muse , although a smaller database, it complements JSTOR. LIke JSTOR it provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the last 10-15 years. Muse offers a basic keyword search (be sure to put the titles of literary works in quotation marks). Once you've retrieved a set of articles you can sort them into broad categories using the Research Area options on the left.
Note: Checking the "Articles" box under Content Type before you run a search will eliminate reviews of books about your topic and leave you with just the articles on your topic.
ProQuest Research Library & Academic Search Premier are comprehensive databases and include considerable literary criticism--much of it full text. In running searches on authors, don't settle for a Keyword search on the author's name, as this will retrieve too many articles in which the author is only mentioned in passing. Instead use the specialized Subject search each provides. In ProQest enter the name, last name first, in the "Person" slot. In Academic Search Premier open the "Select a Field" drop down menu and search the name, last name first, in the "People" field.
In both ProQuest the titles of literary works must be searched as Keyword phrases, so be sure to put them in quotation marks. In Academic Search Premier search the title of a novel followed by the word "book" in the "Reviews and Products" field (this retrieves literary criticism, not just reviews).
In both databases you can set a "Document Type" limit and choose "Book review" or, if it's a contemporary writer, "Interview." (For a contemporary writer you might also try an "Author" search, since many writers publish criticism and social commentary that might shed light on their creative work.)
General OneFile is another comprehensive database with considerable literary criticism, but the default Subject search forcess you to retrieve EVERYTHING on a particular author. The standard "subdivisions" by which General OneFile organizes these results--"Ethical Aspects," Political Aspects," "Social Aspects"--are broad in respect to authors.
If you wish to focus on a particular a theme, the best strategy is to open all the results from the initial Subject search and then use the the "Search within these Results" slot at the upper left to enter thematic Keywords.
If you wish to focus on a specific literary work, open "Advanced Search" and in the "Select Index" box choose "Named Work": this allows you to run a Subject search on a title.
ERIC (Ebsco interface) is an Education database where you can find many scholarly articles on the interpretation and teaching of literary texts at the levels of both secondary and higher education.
New York Times (1851-2009) offers the full text of the New York Times from 1851 up to 2006, so you can access contemporary reviews of The Bluest Eye and Sula as well as trace the arc of Morrison's considerable literary celebrity. Enter a Keyword search, putting phrases in quotation marks. You might begin by searching in the “Anywhere except full text” field, then, if this doesn’t yield enough results, expand to the “Anywhere” field. And Morrison was sufficiently written about over the entire course of her career that you may want to target particular decades by using the date range limits below the search slots.
Literary Reference Center : Aside from some Cliff Notes-type summaries of Sula, there is surprsingly little here, but it does offer the full text of an essay Morrison published in Grand Street in 1991: Black Matter(s).
- Ebrary
- Citation
- Interlibrary Loan
- Plagiarism Tutorial
(log-in required)
And remember that IC's ebrary collection includes over 90,000 titles, the full text of which can be Keywrod searched. For example "Toni Morrison" scores almost 2000 hits (remember to include the quotation marks).
- Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison : Modernist Authenticity and Postmodern Blackness
- Race, Trauma, and Home in the Novels of Toni Morrison
- Toni Morrison : An Ethical Poetics
- Spectrality in the Novels of Toni Morrison
- Toni Morrison and Motherhood : A Politics of the Heart
- Can't I Love What I Criticize? : The Masculine and Morrison
- James Baldwin and Toni Morrison : Comparative, Critical and Theoretical Essays
- Folk Women and Indirection in Morrison, Ni Dhuibhne, Hurston, and Lavin : How to Get a Word in Edgewise
- Whiteness and Trauma : The Mother-Daughter Knot in the Fiction of Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid and Toni Morrison
- Maternal Body and Voice in Toni Morrison, Bobbie Ann Mason and Lee Smith
- Rethinking Postmodernism(s). : Charles S. Peirce and the Pragmatist Negotiations of Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Jonathan Safran Foer
- Religious Imagination and the Body : A Feminist Analysis
And remember that IC's ebrary collection includes over 90,000 titles, the full text of which can be Keywrod searched. For example "Toni Morrison" scores almost 2000 hits (remember to include the quotation marks).
WorldCat via FirstSearch is a "union catalog" that allows you to search the holdings of over 10,000 libraries from accross the country and around the world: over 41 million items. Check WorldCat to discover what the entire universe of possible resources looks like for your topic. For example, a Subject search on Morrison, Toni retrieves over 2,900 items.
Note that upon opening any record there will be an "ILL Order" link that gives you direct entry into IC's interlibrary loan form (when you sign in--IC e-mail user name/password--the form will already be populated with both item identification data and your personal contact info).
User Advisory:
User Advisory:
- At the search interface begain by scrolling down and changing the default "Rank by" setting to "Date"--this will display your retrievals in reverse chronological order with the newest first.
- This is such a large database that you should set a "Limit Type" to "Books" or "Visual Materials" or whatever you are specifically interested in finding.
- When using a Subject search--advisable in such a large database--choose the looser "Subject" search rather than "Subject Phrase"--which requires an often frustrating exactitude.
Note: Morrison is not yet well-served in the universe of Web resources.
- Anniina's Toni Morrison Page Probably the most content of any Toni Morrison site.
- Perspectives in American Literature: Toni Morrison A selected bibliography on Morrison.
- New York Times: Toni Morrison Archive Articles, including the 1973 review of Sula.
- Toni Morrison Society Not much content here, but there is a chonology and a newsletter.
- Voices from the Gaps: Toni Morrison Well-produced short biograrphy with a fair amount about Sula, from the U. of Minnesota.
- Reading the Writing: A Conversation with Toni Morrison A video of Morrison's visit to Cornell in March 2013.
- Open yale Courses:Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye This obviously focuses on Morrison's first novel, but some of the background on the 60s and Morrison and the Novel may be relevant.
- Audio Recording of Toni Morrison's Nobel Lecture: from the Noble Prize Web site.
MLA is the citation style used by most disciplines in the Humanities. The guides below use the most recent 2008/9 standards.
