Review:
Morrison explores how cultures, societies, and individuals develop the notion of the Other, the reasons for it, the perceived benefits of distinguishing based on what many insist are racial traits despite the slipperiness of concepts of race...In this slim volume, Morrison shares again her enormous talent for examining the complexity of race and racial identity, the inhumanity that results from 'othering' a fellow human being, the justifications for cruelty that has resulted in romanticized images of slavery and oppression, and how the perversity of racism reverberates through centuries.--Vanessa Bush"Booklist" (08/01/2017)
This is an intriguing and timely series of reflections on race, fear, belonging and otherness.--Louise Kennedy"The ARTery" (08/31/2017)
From legendary writer and thinker Toni Morrison comes a book that deals with one of the thorniest topics of our time: race...What is race? What motivates us to construct otherness? What makes us so afraid of one another? Probing, brilliant, and beautifully rendered, The Origin of Others is destined to become one of the major sociological texts of our time.--Elizabeth Kiefer"Refinery29" (09/01/2017)
The Origin of Others is a must read.--Tara Block"PopSugar" (08/26/2017)
[A] slender but profound volume.--Tom Beer"Newsday" (09/20/2017)
Every literature lover who dreams of studying with Toni Morrison will devour The Origin of Others, a new collection of her Harvard lectures on race, literature, and otherness.--Angela Carone"San Diego Magazine" (09/08/2017)
What is sure to be her most personal and self-reflecting work in nonfiction yet, Morrison delves further into the themes that have always been crucial to her canon: race, politics, history, identity, et al.--Maura M. Lynch and Jinnie Lee"W Magazine" (09/03/2017)
[Morrison] traces through American literature patterns of thought and behavior that subtly code who belongs and who doesn't, who is accepted in and who is cast out as 'Other.' ...The Origin of Others combines Toni Morrison's accustomed eloquence with meaning for our times as citizens of the world.--Nell Irvin Painter"New Republic" (10/11/2017)
The Origin of Others gives readers around the world a chance to take a peek inside the insightful mind of one of America's most celebrated novelists... Equal parts challenging and engaging, reading The Origin of Others is like learning from the literary legend herself.--Sadie Trombetta"Bustle" (10/13/2017)
Morrison trains her well-aimed pen at the themes that only a titan such as herself can so gracefully take on like race, fear, borders and the mass movement of people, for example.--Lesley-Ann Brown"NBC News" (10/23/2017)
About the Author:
Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993, a National Book Critics Circle Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, at Princeton University. Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle and Between the World and Me.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.