In this volume, Roynon explores Toni Morrison's
widespread engagement with ancient Greek and Roman
tradition. Discussing all ten of her published novels to
date, Roynon examines the ways in which classical myth,
literature, history, social practice, and religious
ritual make their presence felt in Morrison's writing.
Combining original and detailed close readings with
broader theoretical discussion, she argues that
Morrison's classical allusiveness is characterized by a
strategic ambivalence.
Adopting a thematic,
rather than novel-by-novel approach, Roynon demonstrates
that Morrison's classicism is fundamental to the
transformative critique of American history and culture
that her work effects. Building on recent developments
in race theory, transnational studies, and Classical
Reception studies, the volume positions Morrison within
a genealogy of intellectuals who have challenged the
purported conservative nature of Greek and Roman
tradition, and who have revealed its construction as a
'white' or pure and purifying force to be a fabrication
of the Enlightenment. Exploring the ways in which
Morrison's dialogue with Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides,
Virgil, and Ovid relates to her simultaneous dialogue
with many other American literary forebears - from
Cotton Mather to Willa Cather, or from Pauline Hopkins
to F.Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner - Roynon
shows that Morrison's classicism enables her to fulfil
her own imperative that 'the past has to be
revised'.
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