Toni Morrison, the author of Beloved, Song of Solomon, and seven other acclaimed novels, will give a reading from her new book, A Mercy, on July 25 at the Sottile Theatre. The reading is part of the biannual meeting of the Toni Morrison Society from July 24-27, 2008.
The theme of this year’s conference is Toni Morrison and Modernism, which, according to the website, will “highlight diasporic notions of Modernism. Specifically, it will examine how the tragic imperative of enslaved Africans in the U.S. to “make themselves new” in order to survive, predated and, in many ways, countered the alienating impulses of Modernism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
A Mercy is Morrison’s ninth novel. It will be published in November, according to the website. “Set in the 17th century northeast when the slave trade was in its infancy, the novel provides a detailed look at the social environment of religious persecution and racial hatred, class distinction that allowed the institution of slavery to take root in the US. As in all of her novels, Morrison outlines the broad strokes of history in order to explore the impact that they have on the personal choices of the individuals caught in history’s reach.”
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