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The Resource Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks

Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks

Creator
Summary
"Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination investigates Toni Morrison'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'sprotagonist, Sethe, and her community engage the apotropaic as a mode of dealing with their communal suffering. Apotropaic, from the Greek, meaning "to turn away from," 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's logic of self-sabotage consonant with his own thought. Marks draws on this critical history and argues that Morrison's heroine'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--one does what one finds horrible so as to mitigate its horror. In Beloved, Sethe'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'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 "cultural amnesia" and engage in a shared past, finally inaugurating a new order of love. Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination is eclectic in its approach--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
Work
Publication
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 162 pages)
Contents
  • Introduction : dynamics of the apotropaic
  • Sethe's apotropaic imagination
  • Beloved as apotrope
  • An apotropaic clearing
  • The art of memory : situating Morrison
  • The afterlife of Beloved
Isbn
9780826262783
Instance
Label
Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination
Title
Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination
Statement of responsibility
Kathleen Marks
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination investigates Toni Morrison'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'sprotagonist, Sethe, and her community engage the apotropaic as a mode of dealing with their communal suffering. Apotropaic, from the Greek, meaning "to turn away from," 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's logic of self-sabotage consonant with his own thought. Marks draws on this critical history and argues that Morrison's heroine'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--one does what one finds horrible so as to mitigate its horror. In Beloved, Sethe'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'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 "cultural amnesia" and engage in a shared past, finally inaugurating a new order of love. Toni Morrison's Beloved and the Apotropaic Imagination is eclectic in its approach--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
Member of
Action
digitized
Cataloging source
N$T
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
Language note
English
LC call number
PS3563.O8749
LC item number
B435 2002eb
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Morrison, Toni
  • Self-destructive behavior in literature
  • African American women in literature
  • Self-preservation in literature
  • Infanticide in literature
  • Slavery in literature
  • Ohio
  • Morrison, Toni
  • LITERARY CRITICISM
  • African American women in literature
  • Infanticide in literature
  • Literature
  • Self-destructive behavior in literature
  • Self-preservation in literature
  • Slavery in literature
  • Ohio
Label
Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
Instantiates
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-159) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction : dynamics of the apotropaic -- Sethe's apotropaic imagination -- Beloved as apotrope -- An apotropaic clearing -- The art of memory : situating Morrison -- The afterlife of Beloved
Control code
56479785
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 162 pages)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780826262783
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)56479785
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.
Label
Toni Morrison's Beloved and the apotropaic imagination, Kathleen Marks
Publication
Antecedent source
unknown
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 153-159) and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
  • cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Color
multicolored
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction : dynamics of the apotropaic -- Sethe's apotropaic imagination -- Beloved as apotrope -- An apotropaic clearing -- The art of memory : situating Morrison -- The afterlife of Beloved
Control code
56479785
Dimensions
unknown
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 162 pages)
File format
unknown
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780826262783
Level of compression
unknown
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • c
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
unknown
Reproduction note
Electronic reproduction.
Sound
unknown sound
Specific material designation
remote
System control number
(OCoLC)56479785
System details
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002.

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