"Beauty and the Beast"- inspired by Erwin's blog

(For the full discussion, please see Erwin's blog) Erwin suggests on his blog post that the notion of 'black as beautiful' does not really exist in The Bluest Eye. Like Martijn, I'd have to say that I don't agree that black beauty is impossible within the world of the novel. Pecola is obviously a very extreme example of black 'ugliness'as she is considered 'ugly' by both white and black characters. This is only made worse by the fact that even her own family does not offer her support. However, a question that I might like to conider is whether or not Pecola possesses beauty inside of her "beastly" exterior. If so, when/how does this get the chance to emerge? And is her beauty at the end of the novel completely smothered, or does a possibility for redemption remain?

In class last Wednesday, we talked about how the modernists in the early 20th century felt the need to discover a truly American voice in response to immigration. As a result, the Native American voice in literature became important in order to highlight/hail what is truly American as oppose to what was then to be underlined as non-American, namely Jewish American immigrant voices. Considering the history of the American colonists/pioneers with the Native Americans, it's pretty ironic that this happened.

It makes me wonder:
If Americans had to discover a "truly" American voice in the 21st century, which voices might they use? More importantly, to whom would we be reacting?

Welcome!

Welcome to my Literature in America blog. I'm Emily and I teach English at Hogeschool Utrecht in the Netherlands. I'm currently teaching the course Literature in America in the American Studies minor. I have an RMA in Literary Studies and wrote my Master thesis about neoslave narratives, focusing on Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Known World by Edward P. Jones. One of my favorite novels would have to be The Weight of All Things by Sandra Benitez because of the author's use of imagery in the novel, a use of language which is at times truly breathtaking. Right now, I'm reading Taal is Zeg Maar Echt Mijn Ding by Paulien Cornelisse.