Description: In this study of Toni Morrison's writing, Lawrie Balfour explores the idea of freedom through Morrison's novels and nonfiction. Morrison's writing illuminates the meanings of freedom and unfreedom in a democratic society founded on both the defense of liberty and the right to enslavement. Balfour considers how Morrison's writing ignites new ways of being free in the shadow of racial slavery and colonialism.
Review Quotes: "Toni Morrison is yet another brilliant contribution to Balfour's body of work examining the political thought of black intellectuals, DuBois, and Baldwin. It makes a tremendous contribution to Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Black Studies, and American Intellectual History. Morrison scholars will find it especially important as well." -- Farah Jasmine Griffin, Columbia University
"This accessible volume is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the ways in which Toni Morrison's fiction offers political practices and ideals necessary for the current moment. Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." -- Choice"Toni Morrison: Imagining Freedom is a landmark study in how infidelity to traditional canons, and keener attention to how the world is being storied by our "philosophical outsiders," can push us toward more genuine review of past, present, and future possibilities of freedom." -- Alix Lindsey Olson, The Review of Politics