Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

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In 1990 Toni Morrison delivered the William E. Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization. The lecture series was revised and published in May 1992 as a slim volume titled Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination. The three essays are metacritical explorations into the operations of whiteness and blackness in the literature of white writers in the United States. Toni Morrison takes the position that the existing literary criticism in the United States has provided incomplete readings of its canonical literature and, further, has concealed the politics informing the practice of critical literary and cultural analysis itself. She points especially to the politics of the universal, which, as she presents it inPlaying in the Dark, can easily be described as

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Citation: Jimoh, A Yemisi. "Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 July 2004; last revised 20 March 2012. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=2769, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2769 Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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