Teaching Toni Morrison's Recitatif

Study Notes

Article Summary

Catherine Seltzer's article discusses teaching Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" in introductory literature courses.
The article highlights the challenges of teaching the story, particularly in understanding how Morrison uses race as a construct.
"Recitatif's brevity and frequent anthologization make it a common introductory text.
The story's unique characteristic is that it avoids explicitly stating the characters' race, prompting students to make assumptions and consider their own racial biases.
The article emphasizes the need for educators to guide students toward recognizing how Morrison plays with constructs of race in this short story.
The article suggests using Claudia Rankine's "Citizen" to help students critically engage with the topic of race and relationships between people of different races.
The article describes the different perspectives on race that occur when a student reads the story.
The article also argues that understanding the characters' "self-selves" and "historical selves" is vital to understanding the story and learning to critically interpret how race is presented and handled within a dialogue.
There is a discussion of the ways in which each character's experiences in the story impact her relationship, and how this is reflective of their upbringing and context.
A discussion of the significance of the "orchard" is made and how it is linked with racial identity and memories.
It mentions how the story is still relevant and important today.
The article concludes with the author's advice on how to teach the story effectively and encouraging students to think critically about race.