Tar Baby - Tony Morrison

To follow, still researching topic

A. MORRISON AND JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS


I. The Authors and the Narrators
Considering our study of Joel Handler Harris's Uncle Remus stories, particularly the relationship between Harris as white author and Uncle Remus as his black narrator/character, one comes to Morrison's book as a retelling that is more than a new rendition (like the one Lester produced by Lester -- see study guide from last time), but that has some goals that resemble Lester's. Morrison, too, wants to restore Brer Rabbit/Wakaima to his place as a black cultural hero, and she too wants to replace Harris's narrator with a contemporary African-American voice that really speaks to a contemporary American audience. Morrison's narrator tells the story in a voice that is not stereotyped in any way; but whereas Lester speaks of his narrative voice as that of "a people," Morrison's voice seems even a bit more expansive than that. It seems to be the voice of an omniscient, god...