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Cover of The Origin of Others by Toni Morrison

The Origin of Others

Toni Morrison

  • 120 pages · about 2 hours
  • First published 2017
  • 9 editions
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1 About this book

America's foremost novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others?

Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid? Drawing on her Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. Readers of Morrison's fiction will welcome her discussions of some of her most celebrated books--Beloved, Paradise, and A Mercy.

Good for readers who want: history, a true life story, and a short read.

  • Racism
  • History
  • Identity (Psychology)
  • Belonging
  • Race relations
  • Biography
  • Social science
  • Discrimination & Race Relations

2 About Toni Morrison

1931–2019

Chloe Anthony Wofford "Toni" Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019) was an American novelist and editor. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987).

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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