Text and Context in the Art of Toni Morrison (cont)

If a strong historical orientation characterizes Morrison’s work, then it is history told with a difference. In the essay “Daughters signifying(g) History: The Example of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, “ Ashraf H. Rushdy points out that Toni Morrison has provided an alternative text to the dominating text of  American history about slavery. ²⁷ Rushdy asserts that Morrison is engaged in historical reclamation, in bringing occluded subjects to the forefront of people’s consciousness and that she wishes to break the silence that prevails on the subject of slavery.²⁸ By centering the narrative on woman, Sethe, a slave mother,  Morrison engages in an act of double revisionism. She wishes to present slavery from the point of view of a woman’s consciousness—how such a woman would define her own agency as well as he identity, and what choices would be left to her when her “back is up against the wall”²⁹ Of course, we have Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), a narrative of the nineteenth century presenting slavery from the point of view of the woman. However, texts written at this time were papered over, with shocking details of slave life left out. Such a text often geared to a white audience, was full of silences and omissions.