Toni Morrison Society to meet in Charleston

The Post and Courier

Toni Morrison

A reading by author Toni Morrison will be the highlight of the Toni Morrison Society's fifth biennial conference, "Toni Morrison and Modernism."

The conference will be held July 24-27 at various sites in Charleston. It is sponsored by the society, which is an international literary group formed in 1993. It has 600 members from at least 12 countries.

The winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature, Morrison will read from her new book "A Mercy" at 8 p.m. July 25 at the College of Charleston's Sottile Theatre. Tickets may be reserved by calling the College of Charleston's

Office of Institutional Diversity at 953-1939.

According to the Morrison Society's Web site, the conference will explore modernism from many perspectives in the fiction of Morrison. Expanding on the traditional notions of European and American modernism in literature, history and philosophy, the conference will highlight diasporic notions of modernism.

Apparently Charleston was chosen as the conference site because 2008 marks the 200th anniversary of the official ending of the transatlantic slave trade.

"The setting in Charleston, the largest port entry of enslaved Africans and a site rich in the history, art and music of the Gullah culture, allows a treasure of ways to explore how Africans re-created themselves in the New World," the Web site says.

South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth said she was notified of the event by a poet friend in another state and knew nothing, so far, of what the program would entail, as there is no Morrison Society in Charleston. Calls to the Office of Institutional Diversity were not returned.

The Web site lists some of the topics to be discussed:

--Morrison and European and black American modernists, which includes the presentation "Blowing Up the Race House" by Sharon Jessee, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

--Re-imaginings and re- visions, which includes the presentation "John Alfred Williams' Call, Toni Morrison's Response: Looking at 'Son in the Afternoon' through 'The Bluest Eye' " by Lynda Koolish of San Diego State University.

--Colonized bodies and global capitalism, which includes a presentation on "Fragmented Bodies and Fragmented Selves in Toni Morrison's Fiction," by Yvonne Richter of Georgia State University.

The worldwide mission of the Morrison Society is to support the teaching, reading and critical examination of Morrison's works, the Web site says.

For the conference, special room rates are available at the Francis Marion Hotel and the George Street Apartments. Registration will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 24 at the Francis Marion Hotel. All events are open to the public.

For costs of attending events and further conference information, go online to www.tonimorrisonsociety.org or e-mail tmsociety@aol.com.

Reach Dottie Ashley at 937-5704 or dashley@post andcourier.com.