The Nobel laureate didn’t limit herself to writing one type of writing.
Morrison also wrote plays, poems and essays. One of his short stories is due to be published as a book in February. Morrison wrote “Recitatif” in the early 1980s. It is a story about two women’s lives from their childhoods to their differing fortunes as adults. Zadie Smith provides an introduction, while Bahni Turpin reads the audio edition.
Autumn M. Womack is a Princeton University professor of English and African American Studies. Morrison was a long-standing student at Princeton University. Womack claims that the author had written short stories at least since her college days at Cornell University and Howard University. However, she has never published a collection of stories. “Recitatif,” which was part of the 1983 publication “Confirmation. An Anthology of African American Women”, co-edited with the poet-playwright Amiri Baraka, is now out of print.
“Recitatif” is one of the key takeaways. It teaches you to see her as someone who was open to new forms. Womack stated that you’ll forget the notion that she was a solely a novelist, and instead see her as someone who tried all types of writing.
Merriam-Webster defines “Recitatif” as a musical expression that “imitates natural inflections and speech.” This is a style Morrison often recommended. Twyla and Roberta meet in a series of interactions. One is Black and the other is white. We are left guessing which one.
They met as girls at St. Bonaventure’s children’s shelter. “It was an entirely different experience to be in a strange place with someone from another race,” Twyla, Twyla’s story’s narrator, recalls. They meet again years later at Howard Johnson’s upstate New York where Twyla was employed and Roberta arrives with a man who is scheduled to meet with Jimi. Or later at a nearby Food Emporium.
Twyla shares that twelve years ago we were strangers once. “A black girl met a white girl in a Howard Johnson’s while on the road, and had nothing to say. The one in the blue and white triangle waitress hat, the other with a male companion as she travels to Hendrix. We were acting like we were sisters for far too long.
Womack points out that “Recitatif,” like “Sula”, also contains themes from Morrison’s other works, such as the complex relationship between two women or the racial blurring Morrison uses in “Paradise,” which was published in 1998. In “Paradise,” Morrison refers to a White character in a Black community, but doesn’t make it clear who it is. Morrison frequently spoke of race being an invention of society. She once wrote that “the realm racial distinction has been given an intellectual weight to which he has no claim.”
Smith introduces “Recitatif,” comparing it to a puzzle or game. Smith then asks, “Well, now, which kind of mother is more likely to dance all night?” Morrison refers to every aspect of hair length and social status throughout the story as if to challenge readers’ racial preconceptions.
Smith admits that she was compelled to find out who Roberta or Twyla was like most of the readers of “Recitatif”. It was urgently important for me to get it sorted out. I wanted to feel warm in one place and be cold in the next. To feel sorry for the someone and to dismiss the nobody.
“But Morrison will not allow me this to happen. It is worth asking why.
