ABSTRACT
T. Morrison’s rhetorical exercise provides a strong foundation upon which to consider the need and desire for inclusion in local, national, and global narratives that legitimize, name, and otherwise validate the everyday lives of black Americans, past and present. Morrison’s point is to demonstrate specificity within a perceived universal, especially a story about human risk-taking, language, human embattlement, race, gender, and American history that both indicts and challenges her Nobel Lecture audience then and her reading audience today. Black writers have an enormous wealth of mythology of their own, both from their African and American experiences, and have also always had an agenda of their own to push in their writing. Beyond revisionist stories for children, “literary” revisions constitute one significant exercise in adaptation for new audiences. Such exercises challenge Western representations by inverting narratives, recasting roles relative to gender, race and ethnicity, and sexual identity; all with the objective of disrupting the status quo.
