1) Burcar, Lilijana. “Imploding the Racialized and Patriarchal Beauty Myth through the Critical Lens of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.” Vestnik Za Tuje Jezike 9.1 (2017): 139-158. Web.

https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/Vestnik/article/view/7635/7266

Burcar argues that The Bluest Eye exposes the devices manipulated to contrive the Western beauty myth, which whether racialized or gendered, targets African Americans through objectification and disempowerment while sustaining whiteness. She analyzes various examples in the novel where the characters experience this culturally on a regular basis, allowing for the naturalization and perpetuation of these ideologies within American society.

2) Koch, E. “Hollywood’s Terror Industry: Idealized Beauty and The Bluest Eye.” Sanglap 1.1 (2014): 147-57. Web.

http://sanglap-journal.in/index.php/sanglap/article/view/37/27

Koch analyzes the role of Hollywood as a social institution and as an agent of cultural normalization which defines beauty standards. Koch also emphasizes how these standards function in the novel in order to not only expose their harmful effects towards the black community, but to reveal their illusory sense of attainability.

3) Yancy, George. What White Looks Like: African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question. London: Routledge, 2004. Web.

In chapter 5 of his novel, Yancy analyzes the construction of whiteness through a genealogical framework, as well as emphasizes how whiteness is constructed to oppose blackness while claiming “universality.” He then reveals how this ideology drives Pecola’s descent into self-hatred and acceptance of her perceived “ugliness.”

4) Pal, Payel and Neelakantan, Gurumurthy. “Morrison’s Prostitutes in The Bluest Eye.” Notes on Contemporary Literature. Volume 44. Pages 4-7. www.researchgate.net/publication/261527825_Morrison’s_Prostitutes_in_The_Bluest_Eye

These authors argue that China, Poland, and Marie resist capitalist culture through prostitution while also transforming their impoverishment into a form of empowerment which grants them freedom. They also argue that Morrison critiques the black community’s skewed sense of justice in capitalist America by condemning the prostitutes while respecting pedophilic white men.  

5) Jha, Meeta. The global beauty industry: Colorism, racism, and the national body. Routledge, 2015.

In her novel, Jha examines the role beauty plays in creating structural and individual privilege, as well as contributing to discrimination and inequality. She takes an intersectional approach by taking gender, nation, race, color, ethnicity, sexuality, and class hierarchies into consideration when focusing on women’s everyday experiences and practices of beauty.

Annotated Bibliography

1. “Traumatic Awakenings (Freud, Lacan, and the Ethics of Memory).” Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History, by Cathy Caruth, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, pp. 91–112.

Caruth explores Lacan’s interruption of Freud’s theory on trauma suggesting that there is a correlation in surviving a traumatic event and building one’s identity and reality around the event. This chapter is useful in analyzing how survivors or victims shape their lives around traumatic events.

2. Balaev, Michelle. “Trends in Literary Trauma Theory.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, 2008, pp. 149–166. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/44029500.

Balaev addresses the concept of trauma as one traditionally associated with memory, experience and language but also adds geographical place to the mix. The formation of identity post traumatic event is linked to the geographical place because of its specific social values. Citing Caruth, Balaev also argues the contagious nature of trauma (intergenerational trauma) on individuals and groups of people.

3. Brooks Bouson , J. “Quiet as It’s Kept: Shame and Trauma in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.’” Scenes of Shame: Psychoanalysis, Shame and Writing, by Joseph Adamson and Hilary Anne Clark, State University of New York Press, 1999, pp. 207–236.

As the title suggests, Bouson explores shame and self-loathing in The Bluest Eye that stems from societal expectations and norms of beauty in a white dominated nation. This “shame” is culturally learned and continually perpetuated throughout generations becoming a part of black identity in the United States. This article is useful in explaining the historical and cultural significance of the Breedloves believing they are ugly as well as the black community deeming them ugly. The article sheds light on racially traumatized groups of individuals and the silence that often accompanies this trauma.

4. Ramírez, M. L. (2013). “The Theme of the Shattered Self in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye And A Mercy”.Miscelánea, 48, 75-91. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/docview/1497043922?accountid=27495

Ramirez analyzes the character of Pecola in the Bluest Eye and argues that she forms her traumatized disassociated identity from a marginalized position that can be attributed to western patriarchal society. Ramirez also makes the connection between a marginalized group of people and the abuse that community inflicts to its own members forming a chain of abuse.

5. Vickroy, L. (1996). “The politics of abuse: The traumatized child in Toni Morrison and Marguerite Duras”.Mosaic, 29(2), 91. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1300043843?accountid=27495

Vickroy explores how colonization affected the mindset of people who were subjects of a white ruling class and how it continues to do so. She also analyzes how social powerlessness plays a role in the abuse of children by adults, in particular powerless men. This essay shows how the internalization of dominate beliefs and values create powerless individuals who in turn express their frustration and anger on the most vulnerable members.

1) Mahaffey, Paul Douglas. “The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and Class in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 11, no. 4, 2004, pp. 155–165. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43496824

Mahaffey examines Morrison’s text through close readings in which she handpicks moments where characters are negatively affected by race, gender and class. The in-depth analysis of the self-loathing and trauma of characters such as Pecola are extremely relevant to my argument, and can serve as a contrast to privileged characters such as Maureen Peal.

2) Mbalia, Doreatha Drummond. “The Bluest Eye: The Need for Racial Approbation.” Contemporary Literary Criticism, edited by Janet Witalec, vol. 173, Gale, 2003. Literature Criticism Online, http://link.galegroup.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/apps/doc/WBEULT467593299/GLS?u=cuny_hunter&sid=GLS&xid=98cfcc16.

This article, similar to the previous one, relies mostly on close readings in dissecting the ways in which class plays a role in The Bluest Eye. More so, this article is less general in that it discusses more interesting narrative concepts such as the chapter titles. This article also contains a very useful section on Geraldine, who is one of the few “black elites” in the novel.

3) Wallowitz, Laraine. “Chapter 9: Resisting the White Gaze: Critical Literacy and Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Counterpoints, vol. 326, 2008, pp. 151–164. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42980110

Laraine mostly focuses on the idea of the “white gaze” in the novel, and the ways in which it victimizes blacks, which successfully addresses the question I posed in relation to white supremacy. What’s also really interesting about this article is that it is a critical close-reading done by a white teacher and her class of largely African American students.

4) Gillan, Jennifer. “Focusing on the Wrong Front: Historical Displacement, the Maginot Line, and ‘The Bluest Eye.’” African American Review, vol. 36, no. 2, 2002, pp. 283–298. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1512261

Although I have already found a decent amount of articles that focus on characters such as Maureen Peal and Geraldine, this article ventures off into new territory with the Maginot Line. This article is less-close reading heavy and includes more theoretical and historical analysis, which is the kind of source I genuinely need for my research paper at this point. Examples include: The submerged history of lynching, prostitution, and black exclusion from the national family.

5) Werrlein, Debra T. “Not so Fast, Dick and Jane: Reimagining Childhood and Nation in the Bluest Eye.” MELUS, vol. 30, no. 4, 2005, pp. 53–72. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30029634

Werrlein goes into depth on the relationship between childhood and nationalism in American society, as well as the way it ties into the “Dick and Jane” epidemic.  This article relates to my question of black elites being both victimizers as well as victims of white supremacy, as it gives glimpses into the Dick and Jane idealism that characters of The Bluest Eye both scoff and praise.

Research Question: What does Toni Morrison mean, in her novel The Bluest Eye, that the Breedloves put on their ugliness like a garment? Or that ugliness can be adopted or done away with, when she writes: “Except for the father, Cholly, whose ugliness… was behavior, the rest of the family… wore their ugliness, put it on, so to speak, although it did not belong to them (38).”

1. Foucault, Michel. “The Subject and Power.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 8, no. 4, 1982, pp. 777–795. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1343197.

• Foucault writes on how one becomes a subject, using his discussion on power acquisition as a springboard.
• This helps build an argument for how the self is created

2. Mahaffey, Paul Douglas. “The Adolescent Complexities of Race, Gender, and Class in Toni Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye.’” Race, Gender & Class, vol. 11, no. 4, 2004, pp. 155–165. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43496824.

• Mahaffey expounds upon the themes I wish to address in my essay, in particular the intersectional (race,gender,class) depiction of Pecola – the ways in which her desire to be white (the have blue eyes) leads to her destruction, whereas Claudia and her sister are able to avoid such a fate and become fully formed subjects.
• This would do well to answer my prompt, in that I can see an academic perspective on the subjectification of young women as they learn to make their way in the world (within the novel itself).

3. Burt, Janeula M., Halpin, Glennelle. “African American Identity Development: A Review of the Literature.” Mid-South Educational Research Association. November 1998.

• This gives a look into the discourse relating to African-American depictions in literature – what and how these stereotypes are made (the “ugliness” stereotype that Morrison writes about in The Bluest Eye (38-39).
• This provides some historical background to how African-Americans are perceived in literature, what their purposes were in their narratives (like “Whiteness and the Racial Imaginary explains – asking why an African-American is needed in a particular work of art rather than who has the right to write about race.

4.  Brittian, Aerika S. “Understanding African American Adolescents’ Identity Development: A Relational Developmental Systems Perspective.” The Journal of black psychology vol. 38,2 (2011): 172-200. doi:10.1177/0095798411414570.

• This gives added insight into identity development like Foucault, but more specifically for African American Adolescents.
• This gives specificity to my argument about young African American subject formation from the more malleable teenage years into self-realized adulthood.

Antoine, Katja. “’Pushing the Edge’ of Race and Gender Hegemonies through Stand-up Comedy: Performing Slavery as Anti-Racist Critique.” Etnofoor, vol. 28, no. 1, 2016, pp. 35–54. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43823941.

• Talks about how stand-up comedians address race and other topics in an attempt to push social boundaries. This account details two jokes, one by Leslie Jones and the other by Chris Rock, that use slavery to discuss modern racism and analyzes differences in their receptions. This source will be helpful for talking about how humor can enable conversations about racial issues.

Burma, John H. “Humor as a Technique in Race Conflict.” American Sociological Review, vol. 11, no. 6, 1946, pp. 710–715. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2087066.

• Older source exploring how race comes up in different types of jokes in the 1940s. I may use this to establish some timeline and for the specific examples of jokes that it brings up to show how the discourse around race and humor has changed.

Davidson, Chandler. “Ethnic Jokes: An Introduction to Race and Nationality.” Teaching Sociology, vol. 15, no. 3, 1987, pp. 296–302. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1318345.

• A professor’s account of fieldwork and conversations conducted by his sociology students surrounding ethnically based jokes. Includes discussion of the perceived and actual intentions of these jokes, biases in self-reporting, and what makes a joke racist. I think the points he brings up about what makes a joke racist could be quite useful for the purposes of exploring the effects of racial humor today, both on the stage (stand-up, television) and in private conversation.

Henderson, Felicia D. “The Culture Behind Closed Doors: Issues of Gender and Race in the Writers’ Room.” Cinema Journal, vol. 50, no. 2, 2011, pp. 145–152. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41240701.

• Talks about how a homogenous (white) culture is reinforced in writing rooms for television shows and movies, effectively silencing and marginalizing people of color and women. I hope to use this to establish the importance of creating space for these voices in entertainment.

Nielson, Erik. “White Surveillance of the Black Arts.” African American Review, vol. 47, no. 1, 2014, pp. 161–177., www.jstor.org/stable/24589802.

• Primarily focuses on the Black Arts Movement of the 60s and 70s and how it was shaped by white influence (funders, FBI, audience/critics). I want to use this source to draw connections between how the expression of Black artists/comedians/public figures is still affected, albeit differently, by these forces. I also want to connect it to the idea from “Pushing the Edge…” that comedians (especially comedians of color) are challenged to play off the specific boundaries of their audiences/the balance that they must strike when talking about race.

“Race and the No-Spin Zone: The Thin Line between Trolling and Corporate Punditry.” This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture, by Whitney Phillips, MIT Press, 2015, pp. 95–114. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt17kk8k7.11.

• Focuses in on racist memes during Obama’s run for presidency in 2008 and how they were proliferated by both internet trolls and mainstream media. Explores the similarities between the news coverage and internet conversations. This book chapter is useful because it points out some important definitions (overt and inferential racism) and explains how people often try to rationalize that they and/or their words/actions are not and could not be racist.

Roberts, Rosemarie A., et al. “Flipping the Script: Analyzing Youth Talk about Race and Racism.” Anthropology & Education Quarterly, vol. 39, no. 3, 2008, pp. 334–354. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25166672.

• Discusses the ways that Black youth (and people of color historically) talk about race and challenge white supremacy through humor and storytelling. Follows a story-telling curriculum implemented in a particular school in NYC to collect data about these children and their discussions/perceptions about race and discrimination. I want to explore this source’s discussion of “African American humor as resistance” and to see how this is developing in a more modern context.

Additional Sources/Leads

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness by George Lipsitz

• I’m hoping that I might be able to draw a connection from this text between discussions of race in comedy (by white comedians) and the “private prejudice” used to “insure that whites wind up on top of the social hierarchy.”

White Fragility by Robin Diangelo

• I need to read more of this but I wonder if the conversations around the erasure of individual identity in favor of generalized groups would be helpful in explaining the harmful impact of some jokes. There is also mention of how jokes are one way that white people reinforce white supremacy.