Women’s Revolt against Social Stereotypes in Toni Morrison’s Novels

Abstract

Toni Morrison, born Chloe Anthony Wofford, is a contemporary novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993. The Nobel Committee stated that Morrison is an author who “in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality” (The Nobel Prize in Literature). In her novels Morrison not only explores racism in the twentieth-century United States from the point of view of blacks, but by centring her stories on black women and their positions within their communities, she draws the reader‟s attention to intra-racial issues. Russell emphasises that “Few authors had taken on the task of writing about the diverse and complex lives of black women within the black community as well as holding that community responsible for its own actions”.