Introduction

This introductory chapter presents the book’s key analytical and theoretical concerns about Morrison’s writing of place as a twofold phenomenon of writing process and textual result. It gives an overview of the significance of place and displacement in African American experience and in Morrison’s fictional writing, and outlines principal critical strands relating to space and place studies on Morrison. The chapter discusses place as a phenomenological concept understood through Edward Casey and reflects on textual features and writerly strategies relevant for the study of the writing of place. Finally, it outlines the book’s theoretical perspective on the study of the combination of published texts and archived manuscripts—text and avant-texte—and discusses the approach, which builds on a combination of close reading and genetic criticism.