{"product_id":"toni-morrison-and-the-natural-world-an-ecology-of-color-9781496834171","title":"Toni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color","description":"\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Toni Morrison Society Book Prize for Best Single-Authored Book, 2019-2022\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCritics have routinely excluded African American literature from ecocritical inquiry despite the fact that the literary tradition has, from its inception, proved to be steeped in environmental concerns that address elements of the natural world and relate nature to the transatlantic slave trade, plantation labor, and nationhood. Toni Morrison's work is no exception. \u003ci\u003eToni Morrison and the Natural World: An Ecology of Color\u003c\/i\u003e is the first full-length ecocritical investigation of the Nobel Laureate's novels and brings to the fore an unequaled engagement between race and nature. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMorrison's ecological consciousness holds that human geographies are enmeshed with nonhuman nature. It follows, then, that ecology, the branch of biology that studies how people relate to each other and their environment, is an apt framework for this book. The interrelationships and interactions between individuals and community, and between organisms and the biosphere, are central to this analysis. They highlight that the human and nonhuman are part of a larger ecosystem of interfacings and transformations. \u003ci\u003eToni Morrison and the Natural World\u003c\/i\u003e is organized by color, examining soil (brown) in \u003ci\u003eThe Bluest Eye\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eParadise\u003c\/i\u003e; plant life (green) in \u003ci\u003eSong of Solomon\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBeloved\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHome\u003c\/i\u003e; bodies of water (blue) in \u003ci\u003eTar Baby\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLove\u003c\/i\u003e; and fire (orange) in \u003ci\u003eSula\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGod Help the Child\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy providing a racially inflected reading of nature, \u003ci\u003eToni Morrison and the Natural World\u003c\/i\u003e makes an important contribution to the field of environmental studies and provides a landmark for Morrison scholarship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnissa Janine Wardi\u003c\/b\u003e is professor of English and African American literature at Chatham University. She is author of \u003ci\u003eWater and African American Memory: An Ecocritical Perspective\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDeath and the Arc of Mourning in African American\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eLiterature\u003c\/i\u003e, and her work has appeared in \u003ci\u003eAfrican American Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eCallaloo\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eISLE, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMELUS\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50861051150610,"sku":"9781496834171","price":32.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_407b3a26-35ad-4697-b54d-8af92c8f2134.jpg?v=1737587392","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/toni-morrison-and-the-natural-world-an-ecology-of-color-9781496834171","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}