The Resource Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
Resource Information
The item Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries.This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
Resource Information
The item Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries.
This item is available to borrow from 1 library branch.
- Summary
- "Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination investigates Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved in light of ancient Greek influences, arguing that the African American experience depicted in the novel can be set in a broader context than is usually allowed. Kathleen Marks gives a history of the apotropaic from ancient to modern times, and shows the ways that Beloved{u2019}sprotagonist, Sethe, and her community engage the apotropaic as a mode of dealing with their communal suffering. Apotropaic, from the Greek, meaning 2to turn away from,3 refers to rituals that were performed in ancient times to ward off evil deities. Modern scholars use the term to denote an action that, in attempting to prevent an evil, causes that very evil. Freud employed the apotropaic to explain his thought concerning Medusa and the castration complex, and Derrida found the apotropaic{u2019}s logic of self-sabotage consonant with his own thought. Marks draws on this critical history and argues that Morrison{u2019}s heroine{u2019}s effort to keep the past at bay is apotropaic: a series of gestures aimed at resisting a danger, a threat, an imperative. These gestures anticipate, mirror, and put into effect that which they seek to avoid{u2014}one does what one finds horrible so as to mitigate its horror. In Beloved, Sethe{u2019}s killing of her baby reveals this dynamic: she kills the baby in order to save it. As do all great heroes, Sethe transgresses boundaries, and such transgressions bring with them terrific dangers: for example, the figure Beloved. Yet Sethe{u2019}s action has ritualistic undertones that link it to the type of primal crimes that can bring relief to a petrified community. It is through these apotropaic gestures that the heroine and the community resist what Morrison calls 2cultural amnesia3 and engage in a shared past, finally inaugurating a new order of love. Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination is eclectic in its approach{u2014}calling upon Greek religion, Greek mythology and underworld images, and psychology. Marks looks at the losses and benefits of the kind of self-damage/self-agency the apotropaic affords. Such an approach helps to frame the questions of the role of suffering in human life, the relation between humans and the underworld, and the uses of memory and history."--Publishers website
- Language
- eng
- Label
- Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination
- Title
- Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination
- Statement of responsibility
- Kathleen Marks
- Title variation
- Beloved and the apotropaic imagination
- Language
- eng
- Summary
- "Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination investigates Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved in light of ancient Greek influences, arguing that the African American experience depicted in the novel can be set in a broader context than is usually allowed. Kathleen Marks gives a history of the apotropaic from ancient to modern times, and shows the ways that Beloved{u2019}sprotagonist, Sethe, and her community engage the apotropaic as a mode of dealing with their communal suffering. Apotropaic, from the Greek, meaning 2to turn away from,3 refers to rituals that were performed in ancient times to ward off evil deities. Modern scholars use the term to denote an action that, in attempting to prevent an evil, causes that very evil. Freud employed the apotropaic to explain his thought concerning Medusa and the castration complex, and Derrida found the apotropaic{u2019}s logic of self-sabotage consonant with his own thought. Marks draws on this critical history and argues that Morrison{u2019}s heroine{u2019}s effort to keep the past at bay is apotropaic: a series of gestures aimed at resisting a danger, a threat, an imperative. These gestures anticipate, mirror, and put into effect that which they seek to avoid{u2014}one does what one finds horrible so as to mitigate its horror. In Beloved, Sethe{u2019}s killing of her baby reveals this dynamic: she kills the baby in order to save it. As do all great heroes, Sethe transgresses boundaries, and such transgressions bring with them terrific dangers: for example, the figure Beloved. Yet Sethe{u2019}s action has ritualistic undertones that link it to the type of primal crimes that can bring relief to a petrified community. It is through these apotropaic gestures that the heroine and the community resist what Morrison calls 2cultural amnesia3 and engage in a shared past, finally inaugurating a new order of love. Toni Morrison{u2019}s Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination is eclectic in its approach{u2014}calling upon Greek religion, Greek mythology and underworld images, and psychology. Marks looks at the losses and benefits of the kind of self-damage/self-agency the apotropaic affords. Such an approach helps to frame the questions of the role of suffering in human life, the relation between humans and the underworld, and the uses of memory and history."--Publishers website
- Cataloging source
- DLC
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
- 1963-
- http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
- Marks, Kathleen
- Dewey number
- 813/.54
- Government publication
- government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
- Index
- index present
- LC call number
- PS3563.O8749
- LC item number
- B435 2002
- Literary form
- non fiction
- Nature of contents
- bibliography
- http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
- University of Missouri Press
- http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
-
- Morrison, Toni
- Historical fiction, American
- Self-destructive behavior in literature
- African American women in literature
- Self-preservation in literature
- Infanticide in literature
- Slavery in literature
- Ohio
- Label
- Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- 50478389
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Extent
- ix, 162 pages
- Isbn
- 9780826214379
- Isbn Type
- (alk. paper)
- Lccn
- 2002012715
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
- Label
- Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
- Bibliography note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Carrier category
- volume
- Carrier category code
-
- nc
- Carrier MARC source
- rdacarrier
- Content category
- text
- Content type code
-
- txt
- Content type MARC source
- rdacontent
- Control code
- 50478389
- Dimensions
- 24 cm
- Extent
- ix, 162 pages
- Isbn
- 9780826214379
- Isbn Type
- (alk. paper)
- Lccn
- 2002012715
- Media category
- unmediated
- Media MARC source
- rdamedia
- Media type code
-
- n
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<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.umsl.edu/portal/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-and-the-apotropaic/YaeK-PFVXfE/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.umsl.edu/portal/Toni-Morrisons-Beloved-and-the-apotropaic/YaeK-PFVXfE/">Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.umsl.edu/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.umsl.edu/">University of Missouri-St. Louis Libraries</a></span></span></span></span></div>
