Author Analysis: An Analysis of Toni Morrison as a Rhetor

Author Analysis

Attended Howard University and received her BA in English, and then went to Cornell and received her MA in English.
Was an instructor in English at Texas Southern University and Howard University.
She then worked in the publishing industry as an editor for Random House's textbook division, and helped edit the fiction of Black authors such as Angela Davis.
Published The Bluest Eye, her first novel, at the age of 39, in 1970, and later published other books that would solidify her as one of the great novelists in history, such as Song of Solomon and Beloved.

Worked full-time while writing early in her career while also being a parent of two children, so she would write during her free time and she woke up at 4:00 AM every morning when writing The Bluest Eye.

Her works focus on and are inspired by Black identity and experiences in America.

For example, her novel titled Beloved, was inspired by a real enslaved African-American woman named Margaret Garner who she discovered when editing The Black Book, an anthology of texts and art that reflect the Black experience from the period of slavery until the early 20th century.
This demonstrates one of her rhetorical strategies, which is communicating messages in several of her works by basing them on real tangible events and individuals.

Her plots are often not linear (defy time) , and she also switches the perspective of the narrator or speaker in between chapters.
One of her rhetorical practices that she regarded as something she committed to throughout her career is challenging the "white gaze".

The "white gaze" is the assumption that the reader is coming from a white perspective.
She challenges the assumption that there is no depth or meaning in Black lives without the white gaze, and she challenges this assumption in the entirety of her career in order to affirm that the white gaze is not dominant.

Often defies genre conventions, and includes plot lines that reference magic and mysticism.
Her works often escaped stereotyped locations for Black characters in books, as most settings were small Midwestern towns.
She invites readers to see examine how they could either relate to characters, or see how they are implicated in the problem.

She was an honest person, who confronted the difficult conversations and vulnerably shared her personal stories.
Described as "kind, gracious, charming, witty".
Her works suggest she was an immensely creative writer and person.
Her experiences in education and teaching support the notion that she was a literary genius.
She was not afraid to speak on racism, race relations, and American politics.

expressed her disappointment in the election of Trump in her essay, "Mourning for Whiteness".

Even though the focus of her novels are often Black women, she did not want to identify her works as feminist because she thought it would limit her imagination and the interpretations of her works.

In a different statement, she claimed she didn't subscribe to patriarchy and also did not want it to be replaced by matriarchy, and was much more focused on equitable access.

I think that Author Criticism is a valuable form of rhetorical criticism because it allows for increased analysis on rhetorical strategies and how the background and lived experiences of the rhetor influences the rhetoric they produce.
Yet, in the same way that the centrality of the rhetor in this form of criticism is beneficial, it is also limiting because it does not allow for more examination of the audience. In the case of Toni Morrison, more examination of the wide audience that has consumed her literature would enhance one's understanding of Morrison's rhetoric.

Sources:

Brandon Teola's "CMME 3101: Language, Power, and Advocacy" Analysis Blog