Toni Morrison’s essay on altruism and the literary imagination explores the role of goodness in fiction and reflects on why “evil has a blockbuster audience”.
“Evil has a blockbuster audience; Goodness lurks backstage. Evil has vivid speech; Goodness bites its tongue. It is Billy Budd, who can only stutter. It is Coetzee’s Michael K, with a harelip that so limits his speech that communication with him is virtually impossible. It is Melville’s Bartleby, confining language to repetition. It is Faulkner’s Benjy, an idiot.” – Toni Morrison, ‘Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination’
Text:
Toni Morrison, ‘Goodness: Altruism and the Literary Imagination’ (2019) (LINK or PDF)
Time and Place:
14:00-15:00, Wed 9 Oct 2019
Arts 436 (Whitting Room, fourth floor of the Arts building)
Please contact d.butchard@bham.ac.uk if you have any difficulty accessing the readings. You may need a Birmingham ID and password to download PDFs.
Image: Detail from artwork for To Kill a Mockingbird.
About the Postgraduate Seminar:
Page Breaks: Postgraduate Seminar in English Literature