Date of Award
Spring 5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Joanna Levin
Second Advisor
Justine Van Meter
Third Advisor
Rei Magosaki
Abstract
This project examines Toni Morrison’s short story “Recitatif.” The aim of this thesis is to analyze the ways in which the characters of Twyla and Roberta remain fixated on the question of Maggie, a disabled character, and their mothers. Drawing on the work of disability studies specialist Lennard J. Davis, this thesis explores how the binary “normal/abnormal” functions in the story and shapes Twyla’s and Roberta’s understandings of their pasts and identities. The White/Black binary also shapes Twyla’s and Roberta’s experiences—and understanding of Maggie. At a time when the category of “White” stood as a default universal or norm, Maggie’s possible Blackness increases her perceived vulnerability and raises the stakes of the question posed in the narrative, “What the hell happened to Maggie”?
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Velasquez, Emily. Nobody Inside: Toni Morrison's "Recitatif": An Analysis on Whole/Incomplete Bodies, "The Maggie Thing"and Sick and Dancing Mothers. 2024. Chapman University, MA Thesis. Chapman University Digital Commons, https://doi.org/10.36837/chapman.000549