Talk:Toni Morrison

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Toni Morrison article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

	Ohio Portal Toni Morrison is part of WikiProject Ohio, which collaborates on Ohio-related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to current discussions.
B	This article has been rated as B-class on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Please rate this article, and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
Suggested article edit guidelines: To help us prioritise our workload, and in readiness for Wikipedia:1.0, we need to assess our articles for Quality. If this article is Unassessed, please assess it. See the Article Classification for instructions. If you disagree with a rating, you can change it or discuss it at Article Classification. After assessing this article's quality, please make sure it to add it to the Lists at Article Classification, following the grading scheme detailed there.

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or if there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
	This article is supported by the Arts and Entertainment work group.

It is requested that a picture or pictures of this person be included in this article to improve its quality. Note: Wikipedia's non-free content use policy almost never permits the use of non-free images (such as promotional photos, press photos, screenshots, book covers and similar) to merely show what a living person looks like. Efforts should be made to take a free licensed photo during a public appearance, or obtaining a free content release of an existing photo instead.

	This article is part of WikiProject Gender Studies. This WikiProject aims to improve the quality of articles dealing with gender studies and to remove systematic gender bias from Wikipedia. If you would like to participate in the project, you can choose to edit this article, or visit the project page for more information.
???	This article has not yet received a rating.

This article is a current selected biography candidate on the Ohio portal. A selected biography should exemplify Wikipedia's very best work related to Ohio. Please feel free to leave comments.

Contents 1 Influences 2 award 3 Oprah? 4 Use of the term "genre." 5 Politics 6 Removed "Films" section 7 Vandalism 8 Major research, trims 9 Criticism?

[edit] Influences

I have added Herman Melville under "influences" in the info box. Morrison discusses Melville as an influence in her essay "Unspeakable Things Unspoken"[1]. 70.160.240.45 20:14, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] award

Was she the first black person to win the nobel or the first afro-american (there is a difference.) -- Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 07:27, 2004 Aug 27 (UTC)

it seems she was the first black woman and the second black person.

Has she earned a doctorate degree? (I'm not talking honorary degrees)

69.173.147.96 03:38, 1 December 2005 (UTC)I am a senior in high school and have recently visited Princeton. The tour guide said that all of Princeton's professors teach freshmen, but having read the wikipedia entry, I said to her, "Toni Morrison doesn't." However, my tour guide actually had taken one of Morrison's classes as a freshman, so I guess she does teach. Thanks a lot wiki! I felt like an idiot. For the sake of others, I took out the part about her not teaching.

[edit] Oprah?

I think it is inappropriate to mention Oprah in the first paragraph on "one of the most prominent authors in world literature". This could go at the end of the article under a section on movie adaptations of Morrison's work.

[edit] Use of the term "genre."

I disagree with the characterization of African American literature as a "genre." Genre is a somewhat pejorative term that suggests a limited range of characters and situations, e.g., the "genre" of crime fiction, the "genre" of film noir.

[edit] Politics

Someone removed the following section. I don't see why, unless there's a factual error. This was a famous quote and there's nothing wrong with an artist being involved in politics. The Nation is a well-known, established magazine. Serving on its board is simply another fact from her resume. InkQuill 03:39, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

Politics

Morrison caused a stir when she called Bill Clinton "the first Black president;" saying "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas."

She currently holds a place on the editorial board of The Nation magazine.

• I agree; nothing wrong with this section. --lquilter 03:48, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

• I am not sure that the last comment should be under this heading unless it is made clear what her role on the editorial board of The Nation magazine says about her politics. In fact I am not sure that her comment regarding Bill Clinton sheds any light on her political views, unless one assumes that she is attempting to embrace his politics by saying it. () 17:10 16 February 2007

The Nation is a famously liberal magazine. Although I haven't found a complete list of its board members, directors are usually chosen because they are philosophically in tune with the organization. I have attached a reference to the New Yorker article about Clinton being the first black president. It doesn't say she necessarily agrees with his politics, but it is certainly political in the broad sense. Or is there a better heading for this section? InkQuill 18:59, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Removed "Films" section

I removed the following section (quoted in its entirety) because it was contributed by an IP address associated with California Newsreel. Maybe the information should be included somehow, but I don't know. If it is relevant and worthy of inclusion, I leave it to the regular contributors to this article to determine how it should be included and put it back. -- ke4roh 02:21, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

==Films== *[http://www.newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0048-3&s=Toni Documentary: "Toni Morison In Black and White: volume 3" distributed by California Newsreel] <br>

[edit] Vandalism

This article has been subject to a lot of vandalism. Is something being done about this? InkQuill 04:20, 14 February 2007 (UTC)

Don't vandalize my comment, for Pete's sake!InkQuill 03:33, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Two and a half months later, this page is still being vandalized on a regular basis. Would someone please protect it? InkQuill 02:01, 5 May 2007 (UTC)!

I concur to you, InkQuill. Its getting serious

The DarkArcher was here 00:33, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Major research, trims

I've recently begun a huge overhaul and serious research undertaking for this article, including the addition of numerous sources. I removed the lengthy list and description of Morrison's novels because of its superfluous; the article already links to every one of her work, and if readers want an explanation of plot or themes, they can go to the novels' respective articles. I hope to bring this article up to GA standards one day and will be closely following the Biography and MoS guidelines. There will be some more information and more sources to come in the future, but if anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me on my talk page. María (habla conmigo) 17:34, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Criticism?

Where's a section of negative criticism of her? She's not even close to as great as is implied by all the praise she gets, and while it's true that my claim is an opinion here, it also happens to be true, and so there shall be plenty of articles from professional critics who agree if someone less lazy than myself wishes to go find them. Either way, I'll be on the lookout. I do recall something biting from Bloom on Morrison. Chicopac (talk) 01:43, 3 June 2008 (UTC)