I wanted to share some media that help contextualize some of the rich cultural history that Morrison conjures up in The Bluest Eye, both the fictional time of the novel (1941) and the time in which the novel was published (1970). Note: linking all of these “real” materials from cultural history to a fictional text is the bread and butter of “cultural studies” modes of critique…

In terms of the 1940s, it’s important to note that the character Pecola seems to reference Peola in the 1936 film, The Imitation of Life. This useful and brief segment from Turner Classic Movies gives a quick plot summary and explains the irony of Pecola’s name, insofar as it refers to a character who wishes to be white and ends up “passing”:

TCM Race & Hollywood “Imitation of Life”

No Description

Also regarding the 1940s, there’s a wonderful collection of objects relevant to TBE (and many other texts) at The Museum of Fictional Artifacts, built on the exhibition platform Omeka, by English for New Media Students at Dakota State University. There you’ll see images and explanations of Mary Jane wrappers, the Dick and Jane books, and many other objects in the text.

As I mentioned in my lecture, it’s also important to think about Morrison’s intervention into an important moment in African American cultural history. The late 60s/early 70s saw the rise of “Black Power” in politics and the “Black Arts Movement” across a wide range of cultural fields. These tendencies brought with them a new emphasis on affirmations of blackness. I think it’s safe to say Morrison supports this idea, but her novel regards these affirmations a bit skeptically, emphasizing the many ways in which white supremacy burrows within subjects throughout their formation as subjects, rendering problematic any proclamation of a pure, beautiful blackness as a bulwark against racism. For examples of the mode of affirmation Morrison wanted to problematize or, better, critique from within, check out James Brown’s ebullient “Say it Loud” (1968):

“Say It Loud It Loud ~ I’m Black & I’m Proud”

No Description

Even more relevant to the themes of the novel is Curtis Mayfield’s “Miss Black America” (1970):

Curtis Mayfield – Miss Black America

No Description

And finally, Stevie Wonder’s “Ebony Eyes,” from his pathbreaking double album Songs in the Key of Life (1976). One can imagine “Ebony Eyes,” a little whimsically, as the daughter of the defiant Frieda, a “devastating beauty/a pretty girl with ebony eyes”:

No Title

No Description

I mentioned in my that Morrison was likely thinking about the amazing outpouring of musical creativity among African American women in the interwar period when thinking about China, Poland, and Marie in the novel. The women are often represented as sites of unbridled appetite, good humor, and irreverent attitudes towards social norms. This cut from Ma Rainey, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” helps us see the connection:

Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

No Description

We might also listen to Bessie Smith’s “Empty Bed Blues”:

Empty Bed Blues Bessie Smith

At last I have found the FULL version of this classic by Bessie and am posting it for all of her many fans who have so kindly commented on my earlier postings of her. It was recorded at the Columbia studios in New York on the 20th.

For those who really want to go deep and/or think about a research topic, Hazel Carby has written about this topic extensively.