The sacred Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison’s complex style can prove challenging to some readers, but the celebrated writer makes no apologies for her prose. When media mogul Oprah Winfrey once remarked that she didn’t understand the author’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1987 novel “Beloved,” Morrison simply replied, “Read it again,” recounted Davíd Carrasco, Harvard’s Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America. Happily, the Harvard Divinity School (HDS) community will receive some welcome help exploring Morrison’s work in the coming weeks. Carrasco, who acknowledged that “those of us who have spent time reading Morrison know how tough it is,” offered the Oprah anecdote last week during the first in a series of talks aimed at helping the HDS community delve into the religious dimensions of Morrison’s writing. The working group, led by Carrasco and Stephanie Paulsell, Houghton Professor of the Practice of Ministry Studies, will convene on Fridays in the lead-up to the author’s Ingersoll Lecture...