1. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye Lecture II
Ramon Saldivar
Stanford University

2. The Subjectification of the Subject
Aesthetics and the social structure
Literature and Society
Black women writers in the 20th c. American literary tradition
“Quiet as it’s kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941.” BE
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

3. “The codes and touchstones of the world,” BE 47
Foregrounding the trivial
Backgrounding the shocking
Capturing the grammar of the discourse of American subject creation
“But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.”
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

4. Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II
“Dick and Jane”
White family primer
The mythology of classic American life
The deconstruction of the myth
The ideology of “beauty”
The social construction of beauty
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

5. Dismembering white baby dolls: Beauty Politicized and Racialized
“disinterested violence repulsive because it was disinterested. . .” BE, 23
Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgement
Whiteness and privilege
Pedagogy of the movies
Pedagogy of the oppressor
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

6. The Blues-ness of Blue and the Law of the Heart
Hating Shirley Temple
“disinterested violence” BE, 23
“The best hiding place was love” BE, 23
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

7. Kant, Critique of Aesthetic Judgment
The Ideology of the Aesthetic
Beauty as an element of the Political Unconscious
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II

8. Gender as the Modality of Race
Beauty and the internalization of subjection
Misogyny and race
“Love is never better than the lover,” BE 206
9/16/2018
Morrison, Bluest Eye, Lecture II