Fiction and Folklore: The Novels of Toni Morrison

Best-selling novelist Toni Morrison has published five major works: Beloved (which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988), Tar Baby, Song of Solomon, Sula, and The Bluest Eye. In this provocative study of Morrison's novels, Trudier Harris blends fictive and folkloric approaches to illuminate the depth and complexity of the African-American literary heritage.

Morrison stands in a long line of black writers who have grounded their characters, themes, and structures in African-American folk traditions…