“Recitatif” (1983)

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (b.1931)

Winner of 1993 Nobel Prize for literature, first African American to receive this prize

Born in Lorain, Ohio, basis for some of her fictional settings

B.A., Howard Univ.; M.A., Cornell, thesis on Woolf and Faulkner; taught at Howard Univ.

Editor for Random House publishers Novels include The Bluest Eye (1970), Sula (1974),

Song of Solomon (1977), Beloved (1987), Jazz (1992), Paradise (1988), Love (2003)

Toni Morrison (b.1931)

Criticism: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the American Literary Imagination (1992)

Professor of Humanities at Princeton University Themes: American race relations, history and

memory “Recitatif” (1983) is Morrison’s sole published short

story A “recitatif” or “recitative” is “a vocal style in which a

text is declaimed in the rhythm of natural speech with slight melodic variation” (American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997). The story is Twyla’s recitatif.

Doubles

“Recitatif” is a story of doubles, one black and one white, but the reader can’t say for sure which is which

Similarities to Poe’s “William Wilson”: first-person narration; early institutional experience (school/orphanage); meetings at intervals later in life; narrator is challenged and hurt by the double But “Recitatif” ends with their reconciliation

Doubles

Both are misfits in the orphanage: they don’t have “beautiful dead parents in the sky” (2255); their mothers are alive: Twyla’s mother dances late Robert’s is sick

Bad students: Twyla “couldn’t remember” things (2254) Roberta can’t read

Racial Ambiguity 2253 Roberta “a girl from a whole other

race” (but which?) 2254 “like salt and pepper” 2259 “Everything is so easy for them. They

think they own the world” 2262 “how it was in those days: black—

white” 2262-65 bussing (to integrate schools

black & white): Twyla’s son Joseph is getting bussed; but Roberta’s kids face the same prospect

Historical Structure (age 8 is definite, later ages are estimates)

Twyla and Roberta meet at different ages, in different settings:

at 8 (orphanage, 4 months) at roughly 18-20 (Howard Johnson’s on thruway

near Kingston, NY, August) Twyla a nightshift waitress Roberta passing through with two men, going to see

(Jimi) Hendrix, whom Twyla calls “she” Roberta and men laugh at Twyla, don’t say goodbye

Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)

Historical Structure

at roughly 30-32 (Food Emporium, Newburgh, NY, late June) key to ages on page 2260: about 20 yrs after orphanage;

12 yrs after Howard Johnson’s; Twyla’s son Joseph in junior high school (about 12 yrs old)

Twyla married to James Benson, a fireman, with son Joseph: middle class

Roberta married to Kenneth Norton, in computer industry: wealthy--limo & servants—in “a neighborhood full of doctors and IBM executives” (2259); 4 stepchildren

Historical Structure

At roughly 30-32 (Picket-lines, Fall) Twyla, pro-bussing Roberta, anti-bussing

“I wonder what made me think you were different” “I wonder what made me think you were different” (2263)

Roberta betrays Twyla: refuses to help: “no receiving hand was there” (2263)

Historical Structure

At roughly 30-32 (Picket lines, Fall) Twyla’s and Roberta’s identities are defined in

relation to one another: “Actually my sign didn’t make sense without Roberta’s” (signs depend on one another) (2264)

Later 30s (coffee shop, Christmas Eve); Joseph in college (about 18) Reconciliation, but Maggie issue still unresolved

Historical Structure

This story of doubles is suspended through recent American history: Race relations Bussing (to integrate schools) Computer industry Changes in town of Newburgh, New York: once

“upstate paradise,” then half “on welfare,” with new wealthy tech class working for IBM

Archetypal Structure

Easter (2255), Christmas (2265) Story of Maggie—a mute woman—also

partakes of archetypal structure: this is a story of primal guilt which (like the story of Adam and Eve) takes place in a garden, an apple orchard See 2254 “gar girls” (corruption of gargoyles, “the evil stone

faces” [2260]): associated with evil, like the gargoyles of medieval Gothic cathedrals

Gargoyles, Notre Dame, Paris

The Significance of Maggie: Shifting memories/ shifting meanings:

Maggie fell (2245) Maggie didn’t fall, was knocked down (2261) Twyla and Roberta both kicked Maggie, who

was black (2264) Twyla didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to

(associated Maggie with her mother) (2265) Roberta didn’t kick Maggie, but wanted to

(associated Maggie with her own mother) (2266)

Consumer Culture: name-brand products, corporations, TV shows, pop icons: Klondike ice cream

bars Tab Yoo-Hoo Chiclets Elmer’s glue IBM A&P

The Wizard of Oz The Price Is Right The Brady Bunch Jimi Hendrix

Setting

“Recitatif” takes place in impermanent, transient settings. What effect or significance might this feature of setting have? Orphanage Howard Johnson’s New shopping mall/parking lot Picket lines Coffee house

Conclusion

As doubles, Twyla and Roberta share an uncomfortable past

Roberta challenges Twyla to remember parts of her past Twyla prefers to forget

Reality and repressed desire get mixed up In the present, they are one another’s racial and

class “other” They collaborate to reconstruct their shared past

and bridge their differences of class and race But what happened to Maggie?