美国国家公共电台 NPR Toni Morrison, Whose Soaring Novels Were Rooted In Black Lives, Dies At 88

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Toni Morrison, one of the giants of literature, has died. She was 88 years old. Morrison's work focused on African American life and culture. It dominated an industry where the vision of black life frequently was limited and sometimes descended¹ into stereotype². Karen Grigsby Bates has this appreciation³.

KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE⁴: Toni Morrison stood before the Swedish Academy when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Tall with a leonine mane of natural hair streaked⁶ with silver and steel, Morrison spoke⁷ in her signature measured cadence⁸.

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TONI MORRISON: I hope you will understand when the remarks I make begin with what I believe to be the first sentence of our childhood that we all remember, the phrase, once upon a time.

BATES: Her masterwork, "Beloved," was a once upon a time based in bloody⁹ truth. Its inspiration was Margaret Garner¹⁰, a real-life escaped slave who killed her children rather than have them captured and returned to slavery. "Beloved" was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BELOVED")

BATES: A decade later, Oprah Winfrey made a movie based on the book and played Sethe, the mother, in this scene. Sethe is asked if she really thought slavery was worse than death.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BELOVED")

OPRAH WINFREY: (As Sethe) It ain't my job to know what's worse, Paul D. It's my job to know what is, and to keep my children away from it. 'Cause I'd rather know they had peace in heaven than live in a hell here on earth, so help me Jesus.

BATES: Morrison was 56 when "Beloved" was published, but she'd been living with stories since childhood. Born Chloe Wofford, she grew up with tales being told all around her in her hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Her grandparents, like millions of blacks, left the segregated¹¹ South for the North, part of the epic¹² Great Migration¹³. Young Chloe listened when the adults told stories about their southern homes. In a 2010 interview, she said their language stayed with her.

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MORRISON: In my own family, there was street language. There was sermonic language. You know, people actually quoted the Bible to you.

BATES: Chloe Wofford went to college at Howard University, where she became Toni, using the nickname of her baptismal saint, Anthony. She earned her master's at Cornell and married architect Harold Morrison, with whom she had two sons. They divorced after seven years. She started her early publishing career as an editor, first in textbooks then for general circulation books. At the 92nd Street Y in New York, she told an audience she wasn't happy with how most black books were being edited back then.

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MORRISON: I thought the editing was sloppy¹⁴. I thought the productions (laughter) were mishandled. Even the great books, like "Roots" and things, you know? When you read them carefully, you see that nobody was paying any attention.

BATES: So she consciously sought out good black authors, pulling them into what was and mostly still is the alabaster¹⁵ publishing industry. She edited Angela Davis, Muhammad Ali and the novelist Gayl Jones during the social upheaval¹⁶ of the late '60s and early '70s. Morrison saw this as her contribution to the civil rights movement.

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MORRISON: I made it my business to collect African Americans who were vocal¹⁷, either politically or just writing wonderful fiction.

BATES: Even as she edited, Morrison secretly wrote for herself, getting up before her children were awake. Her first book, "The Bluest Eye," was published in 1970. It's a tale about a dark-skinned little girl who believes blue eyes will make her beautiful and cherished. Piper Huguley, a professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, remembers how she felt when she read "The Bluest Eye" as a college student.

PIPER HUGULEY: At that young point in my life first came across the whole aspect of colorism and its connection to self-loathing and how deeply embedded¹⁸ that could go.

BATES: Morrison elaborated on this in one of her later books. She read from the book for Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 2015.

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MORRISON: (Reading) I hate to say it, but from the very beginning in the maternity¹⁹ ward⁵, the baby, Lula Ann, embarrassed me. Her birth skin was pale, like all babies, even African ones. But it changed fast. I thought I was going crazy when she turned blue-black right before my eyes.

BATES: Piper Huguley says that kind of frankness about race has made Morrison's work essential reading.

HUGULEY: She exists in a class we call Seminal²⁰ Writers that every English major must take, and that means that she belongs, for us here at Spelman and no doubt elsewhere, as part of the African American literary canon. That is, an author who must be read.

BATES: Morrison's stories weave between the familiar and the fantastical. In "Song Of Solomon," a key element was an ancient folk tale about black people flying away from enslavement and back home to Africa. The theme of mother-daughter love runs through several books, like "Beloved" and "A Mercy," where women make terrible sacrifices for their children. These are books that focus, without apology or explanation, on black lives and black culture. Some wondered why Morrison didn't make white characters more central to her stories. In 1998, she told talk show host Charlie Rose she had no interest in that.

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MORRISON: And I've spent my entire writing life trying to make sure that the white gaze was not the dominant²¹ one in any of my books.

RICHARD YARBOROUGH: That statement, I think, suggests her grounding in the sort of black cultural liberationist²² art of the 1960s where, really, for the first time, that younger generation of black writers expressed their mission in exactly that way.

BATES: Richard Yarborough teaches African American literature at UCLA and says generations of black women writers, no matter their genre²³, have been touched by Morrison.

YARBOROUGH: Morrison is such a monumental figure that there's no way you could write about black women's experiences without taking her into account, even if you decided²⁴ you were going to strike out in your own way.

BATES: She has shown by example the validity of black women's lives. And through her many once upon a times, Toni Morrison's expansive vision of black humanity now resonates around the globe.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHOIR²⁵ MUSIC)

BATES: Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED FILM)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (As characters, singing) How woo (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Hallelujah.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Hallelujah.

1 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

2 stereotype   

n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框

参考例句：

• He's my stereotype of a schoolteacher.他是我心目中的典型教师。
• There's always been a stereotype about successful businessmen.人们对于成功商人一直都有一种固定印象。

3 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

6 streaked   

adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• The children streaked off as fast as they could. 孩子们拔脚飞跑 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His face was pale and streaked with dirt. 他脸色苍白，脸上有一道道的污痕。 来自辞典例句

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 cadence   

n.（说话声调的）抑扬顿挫

参考例句：

• He delivered his words in slow,measured cadences.他讲话缓慢而抑扬顿挫、把握有度。
• He liked the relaxed cadence of his retired life.他喜欢退休生活的悠闲的节奏。

9 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

10 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

11 segregated   

分开的； 被隔离的

参考例句：

• a culture in which women are segregated from men 妇女受到隔离歧视的文化
• The doctor segregated the child sick with scarlet fever. 大夫把患猩红热的孩子隔离起来。

12 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

13 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

14 sloppy   

adj.邋遢的，不整洁的

参考例句：

• If you do such sloppy work again,I promise I'll fail you.要是下次作业你再马马虎虎，我话说在头里，可要给你打不及格了。
• Mother constantly picked at him for being sloppy.母亲不断地批评他懒散。

15 alabaster   

adj.雪白的；n.雪花石膏；条纹大理石

参考例句：

• The floor was marble tile,and the columns alabaster.地板是由大理石铺成的，柱子则是雪花石膏打造而成。
• Her skin was like alabaster.她的皮肤光洁雪白。

16 upheaval   

n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱

参考例句：

• It was faced with the greatest social upheaval since World War Ⅱ.它面临第二次世界大战以来最大的社会动乱。
• The country has been thrown into an upheaval.这个国家已经陷入动乱之中。

17 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

18 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

19 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

20 seminal   

adj.影响深远的；种子的

参考例句：

• The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
• The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。

21 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

22 liberationist   

（尤指妇女）解放论者

参考例句：

23 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

24 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

25 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。