ABSTRACT
Many critics writing on the work of Toni Morrison continue to locate her work within a constricted frame of reference and place, that is, largely within the boundaries of the United States and specifically as speaking only to the existential realities of the African American community. These symbolic moves when initiated by radical critics are most likely informed by a desire to identify and accentuate the specificity and autonomy of black aesthetics (see, e.g., Ogunyemi, 1992). On the other hand, conservative critics deploy these territorial strategies in an effort to contain and bottle up Morrison’s muse, less its energies spill over the social fire-walls that divide racial groups in this society (see, e.g. Blackburn, 1973).
