Civilizations Underneath African Heritage as Cultural Discourse in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon

Abstract IN EACH OF H ER ACCLAIMED NOVE LS , Toni Morrison writes what she calls “village literature, fiction that is really for the village, for the tribe” (LeClair 26). Yet Morrison has been hailed as one of the greatest writers (I will do away with any of the qualifiers) of the twentieth century. She has been compared to Faulkner and Marquez in her use of stream of consciousness and magic realism, but we need to look a little closer at Morrison’s own comments and her historical roots to explore the rich complexity of her written work. Although she wrote her master’s thesis on Faulkner and has acknowledged influence by Marquez and other Latin American writers, Morrison’s writings are deeply entrenched in her own black folk roots and the community in which she grew up. Moreover, her text is informed by her mother’s stories, her tribe, and her ancestors-African and African American. In “Rootedness: The Ancestor as Foundation,” Morrison yearns for a closer identification of the black American artist with her community: