March 31, 1988 Toni Morrison, editor, novelist, professor became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for excellence in American Literature for Beloved.
Why is this book important to Christian fiction?
Could it be Toni's revision of the Old and New Testaments. Or they way she made her main character, Sethe, a metaphor for Slavery in America, a study on black and white relations in America? Or is this another allegory on the Song of Solomon or The Jews in Exile in the Old testament ?
"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."
--Song of Solomon (6:3)
"I AM BELOVED and she is mine."
--Toni Morrison, Beloved
Is Morrison's work an example for post post modern christian authors to discuss and explore?
She has no conversion scenes. No angels coming down from Heaven to speak to us. But she takes a deep seated hurt and dissects the African American psyche, a christian's psyche, our undying faith or simply an alienated heart. She uses simple observations, incredible circumstances and hidden truths to do this. And she won a Pulitzer in spite of it.
What say you?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
