The Artist as Outsider in the Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf

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On first consideration, Nobel prize winning African-American author Toni Morrison would seem to have little in common with Virginia Woolf, the British writer who challenged Victorian concepts of womanhood. But Woolf's achievement and influence have been enduring, so much so that Morrison wrote her masters thesis on Woolf and William Faulkner. In that thesis, Morrison gives special attention to issues of isolation, and she notes that for Woolf, isolation brought a sense of freedom that the attached could never comprehend. This book examines the literary relationship between Woolf and Morrison. In her own novels, Morrison redefined Woolf's concept of isolation in terms of American racism. While Morrison's female characters are clearly outsiders, they can nevertheless experience a sense of community that Woolf's characters cannot. Woolf's female characters, on the other hand, are often alienated because of their repressed erotic longing for women. Both Morrison and Woolf consider the severe obstacles the female artist must encounter and overcome before she can create art. This volume looks at the similarities that link Morrison and Woolf together despite their racial, ethnic, national, and historical differences, and it examines how differing structures of domination define their art.

Reviews

"Lisa Williams' timely study of the artist as outsider in the novels Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf is a masterful comparative women's studies project in which she demonstrates the validity of employing an intersectional analysis of race and gender and constructions of whiteness in the work of two of the most significant writers/intellectuals of the twentieth century. Williams' reading of Morrison and Woolf makes an important contribution to our understanding of these influential figures and their conception of female subjectivity in all its complexity."-Beverly Guy-Sheftall Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies Spelman College Atlanta, Georgia
"Reading Morrison and Woolf together is a brilliant strategy. What Lisa Williams finds in her remarkable study is how much the two great 20th century writers have in common as radical outsiders, critics of their cultures and, aesthetically, as experimental writers trying to give voice to the silenced and oppressed. It is time to read Woolf through the lens of race and Morrison as a universal figure."-Jane Marcus Distinguished Professor CUNY and CCNY
"The Artist as Outsider in the Novels of Toni Morrison and Virginia Woolf satisfies a longstanding need for a full-scale intertextual analysis of two twentieth-century literary giants. Lisa Williams brings together Morrison and Woolf for a penetrating look at the subtle differences and unexpected similarities in the writer's artistic and cultural sensibilities. Showcased in a compelling comparison of seemingly far-flung texts is the timeless theme of the alienated artist, burnished and richly contextualized with contemporary critiques on race, gender, and culture. This splendid coupling of Woolf and Morrison will convince all students of literature to continue the practice of reading across cultures."-Tuzyline Jita Allan Associate Professor, English Department Baruch College, City University of New York
[A] well researched, wonderful book that provides scholars and general readers with interesting ways to view how the works of these two great artists intersect.-Woolf Studies Annual
[U]seful to further understanding of these two women writers, their respective literary traditions, and a general theory of modernity and modernist literature.-American Literature
Williams provides the fist full-length, joint study of the two women.-Choice
Williams' analyses move scholars forward in quest of insights that may increase understanding without erasing differences.-The Virginia Woolf Miscellany
"A well researched, wonderful book that provides scholars and general readers with interesting ways to view how the works of these two great artists intersect."-Woolf Studies Annual
"Useful to further understanding of these two women writers, their respective literary traditions, and a general theory of modernity and modernist literature."-American Literature
"[U]seful to further understanding of these two women writers, their respective literary traditions, and a general theory of modernity and modernist literature."-American Literature
"Williams provides the fist full-length, joint study of the two women."-Choice
"Williams' analyses move scholars forward in quest of insights that may increase understanding without erasing differences."-The Virginia Woolf Miscellany
"[A] well researched, wonderful book that provides scholars and general readers with interesting ways to view how the works of these two great artists intersect."-Woolf Studies Annual

Author Bio

LISA WILLIAMS is Associate Professor of Literature at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she teaches writing, literature, and women's studies. She has published essays and reviews in Women's Studies Quarterly, Virginia Woolf Miscellany, and Transformations: A Resource for Curriculum Transformation and Scholarship. Her poetry has appeared in For She is the Tree of Life: Grandmothers Through the Eyes of Women Writers.