Text and Context in the Art of Toni Morrison (cont)
Although, the last word or name in the novel is
“Beloved,” Kristin Boudreau suggests that contrary to the reading of several
critics that Beloved was “story” to
pass on” and thereby underscoring the commitment to history that Morrison has emphasized over
and over again, perhaps one should take Morrison’s words at face value and
accept the fact that it was indeed, “not a story to pass on.”49
Boudreau’s contention is that it was “not a story to pass on” because Beloved
finally becomes an absence.50 She will always embody that part of
African-American history that modern day African-Americans do not want to
remember. If Morrison can gesture towards the necessity of remembering she can
also suggest elliptically, the necessity of forgetting. There are no real
closures in the novel. . All this ties in very neatly with the
poststructuralist skepticism that history is not a definitive text. However, in
keeping with Morrison’s avowed commitment to History, we may accept Caroline
Rody’s position that the text embodies, “the affective aspect of history
writing, insofar as the historiographic project enacts a relationship of
desire, and emotional implication of present and past.”51
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