CFP - The Timeless Toni Morrison

In celebration of Toni Morrison's 85th birthday in 2016, we invite contributions for a collection of essays that will be published with the cooperation of the University of Maroua, Cameroun, and University of Zielona Góra, Poland. Editors. Blossom N. Fondo Ph.D. and Agnieszka Łobodziec Ph.D.

Toni Morrison frequently underscores the role of history as a significant referent in the process of her fictional writing. In that vein, literary historical representations may evoke debate. Questions pertaining to the objectiveness or subjectiveness of the fictional portrayals, their correspondence between historical fact and fiction, the level of traditional realist artistry, and being overly literary representational might arise. Critics have applied the concepts neorealism, historical criticism, social realism, magical realism, and poetic realism in their analyses of Morrison's fiction. Over against such theoretical polemics, Morrison accentuates historical accuracy. She seeks to fuse her artistic imagination with historical knowledge obtained by in-depth research. For instance, in response to the ubiquitous classification of her fiction as magic or incredible Toni Morrison contends, "I consider that my gravest responsibility (in spite of that magic) is not to lie." The novelist even ascribes more truth to fiction as opposed to documented history and other history-laden texts. She aspires to discover and reconstruct the truth by imagining the internal lives of her characters. For instance, with regard to slave narratives, she asserts, "I'm trying to fill in the blanks that the slave narratives left – to part the veil that was so frequently drawn, to implement the stories that I heard – then the approach that's most productive and most trustworthy for me is the recollection that moves from the image to the text. Not from the text to the image." As far as the representation of "major things that have been erased from our history […] the other things that were going on in the 1950s" in Morrison's novel Home, the writer maintains that, "In the United States, we think of the 50s as a kind of golden age. Right after the war, everybody was making money, the GI Bill was sending soldiers into college campuses, and the television was full of […] happy stories […] And I didn't think so. I thought that there was a crust or veil that was being pulled over the 50s" (Interview. CBC).
With thought given to Toni Morrison's perspective towards history, the submissions might address the following topics, but are not limited to them:
- intersections between historiography and historical fiction
- differences between historiography and creative writing
- objectivity, subjectivity, and truth
- the historical context of the author, the reader and text
- new historicism
- slave narratives and neo-slave narratives
- various forms of realism and literary representations of history
- history and myth
- language and discourse
- image and imagination
- meaning, interpretation, and ideology
- the past and memory
- the past and identity

Moreover, we encourage consideration of the following issues: What thematic continuities as well as ruptures can be discerned in Morrison's texts? How and in what ways has Morrison's world shaped her works? What other literary influences and interactions can be deciphered that bear on her art? What futuristic tendencies can be found in her literature and what do they envisage for the human race? What critical referents do her texts provide? What aesthetic peculiarities can be observed in Morrison's works? Contributors are encouraged to consider engaging Morrison's oeuvres from feminist, postcolonial, ecocritical approaches but not limited to them.

Important dates:
31 January 2016 –submission of abstracts (400-500 words)
30 April 2016 – submission of full articles (4500-6000 words)
Please send the abstracts and articles at foreverblossom@gmail.com and aga_uz@tlen.pl