ENGL 2603

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  • Schedule of Classes - January 15, 2024 7:50PM EST
  • Course Catalog - January 15, 2024 7:28PM EST

ENGL 2603
The Novels of Toni Morrison

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2023-2024.

Each year this seven-week, one-credit course focuses on a different novel by Nobel Laureate and Cornell alumna Toni Morrison. We read and discuss each novel in the context of Morrison's life and career, her place in African American, US, and world literature, and her exploration of crucial questions regarding identity, race, gender, history, oppression, and autonomy. Please see the class roster for the current semester's featured novel. Students will read the novel closely, with attention to its place in Morrison's career and in literary and cultural history.

When Offered Fall.

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Syllabi: none

  •   Seven Week - Second.  Combined with: ASRC 2603

  • 1 Credit Stdnt Opt

  • Topic: Tar Baby

  • 12687 ENGL 2603   LEC 001

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  • Instruction Mode: In Person
    Toni Morrison uses a metaphor from a folk tale as the title for her fourth novel, Tar Baby. The core narrative, a fraught love affair set on a Caribbean island, extends the scope of Morrison’s treatment of class, race, gender, and geography—as well as the phenomenon of romantic love—beyond any of her previous works. Following courses on Morrison’s first three novels offered over the past three academic years, this course will consider Tar Baby within the context of the author’s full body of work. An additional feature of the course will be the introduction of Morrison’s 2011 play Desdemona (a commentary on Shakespeare’s Othello), which will be performed as part of Cornell’s celebration of the 30th anniversary of Morrison’s Nobel Prize for Literature.