CRITICISM

Alwes, Karla. “‘The Evil of Fulfillment’: Women and Violence in The Bluest Eye.” In Women and Violence in Literature: An Essay Collection, edited by Katherine Anne Ackley, pp. 89-104. New York: Garland Publishing, 1990.

Alwes equates the violence in The Bluest Eye with self-hatred caused by Pauline's and Pecola's illusions about white American society and their places in it.

Bloom, Harold, ed. Toni Morrison's “The Bluest Eye”: Modern Critical Interpretations. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1999, 270 p.

Bloom presents previously published criticism of The Bluest Eye, offering various perspectives on the diverse issues raised by the novel.

Cormier-Hamilton, Patrice. “Black Naturalism and Toni Morrison: The Journey Away from Self-Love in The Bluest Eye.” MELUS 19, no. 4 (winter 1994): 109-27.

Cormier-Hamilton examines the influence of environment on the characters of The Bluest Eye from a “black naturalistic” perspective, highlighting differences between traditional uses of naturalism and African American approaches to naturalism, which are shown to rely upon a protagonist's struggles with self-awareness and self-realization.

Dittmar, Linda. “‘Will the Circle Be Unbroken?’: The Politics of Form in The Bluest Eye.” Novel: A Forum on Fiction 23, no. 2 (winter 1990): 137-55.

Dittmar discusses the formal aspects of The Bluest Eye as a function of ideology, specifically highlighting the novel's displacement of “social pathology and failed human values into the black community.”

Doughty, Peter. “A Fiction for the Tribe: Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.” In The New American Writing: Essays on American Literature since 1970, edited by Graham Clarke, pp. 29-50. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

Doughty studies The Bluest Eye within the context of the development of black women's writing since the 1970s when African American writers began revising their history with the materials and narrative traditions of their own culture.

Earle, Kathryn. “Teaching Controversy: The Bluest Eye in the Multicultural Classroom.” In Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison, edited by Nellie Y. McKay and Kathryn Earle, pp. 27-33. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1997.

Earle advises instructors teaching The Bluest Eye in multicultural settings, concerning not only the novel's racial issues but also its sexual component.

Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of “Double-Consciousness” in the Novels of Toni Morrison. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993, 198 p.

Heinze analyzes Morrison's oeuvre through 1992 with sections devoted to The Bluest Eye concerning such themes as aesthetics, familial relations, social status, and metaphysics.

McKay, Nellie Y., and Kathryn Earle, eds. Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1997, 179 p.

McKay and Earle present essays that outline effective strategies to teach each of Morrison's novels, including The Bluest Eye, addressing such topics as racial and identity issues raised by her works, literary and historical contexts, stylistic and narrative techniques, and theoretical approaches for classroom situations.

Moses, Cat. “The Blues Aesthetic in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.” African American Review 33, no. 4 (winter 1999): 623-36.

Moses identifies the themes and rhetorical structures of The Bluest Eye with the conventions of blues music, discerning a female subjectivity in the character of Claudia that relates to the African American oral tradition of “testimony” in the blues aesthetic.

Munafo, Giavanna. “‘No Sign of Life’—Marble-Blue Eyes and Lakefront Houses in The Bluest Eye.” LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 6, nos. 1-2 (April 1995): 1-19.

Munafo illuminates the racial, gender, and economic implications of Morrison's deconstruction of “whiteness” in The Bluest Eye.

Portales, Marco. “Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye: Shirley Temple and Cholly.” Centennial Review 30, no. 4 (fall 1986): 496-506.

Portales examines Morrison's characterizations of Pecola and Cholly in The Bluest Eye, focusing on the cultural forces that shape their respective identities.

Wren, James A. “Morrison's The Bluest Eye.” Explicator 55, no. 3 (spring 1997): 172-76.

Wren presents a medical autopsy of Aunt Jenny's death in The Bluest Eye in light of folk remedies.

Yancy, George. “The Black Self within a Semiotic Space of Whiteness: Reflections on the Racial Deformation of Pecola Breedlove in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.” CLA Journal 43, no. 3 (March 2000): 299-319.

Yancy explores the symbolic values of “whiteness” as it functions within the life of Pecola in The Bluest Eye, focusing on both the character's psychological and bodily “ugliness” and the inherent distortions of “whiteness” itself.

Additional coverage of Morrison's life and career is contained in the following sources published by the Gale Group: African American Writers, Eds. 1, 2; American Writers Supplement, Vol. 3; Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Vols. 1, 22; Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: Biography and Resources, Vol. 2; Black Literature Criticism, Vol. 3; Black Writers, Eds. 2, 3; Concise Dictionary of Literary Biography, 1968-1988; Contemporary Authors, Vols. 29-32R; Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vols. 27, 42, 67; Contemporary Literary Criticism, Vols. 4, 10, 22, 55, 81, 87; Contemporary Novelists; Contemporary Popular Writers; Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vols. 6, 33, 143; Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, 1981; DISCovering Authors; DISCovering Authors: British Edition; DISCovering Authors: Canadian Edition; DISCovering Authors Modules: Most-studied, Multicultural, Novelists, Popular Fiction and Genre Authors; DISCovering Authors 3.0; Exploring Novels; Feminist Writers; Literature and Its Times, Vols. 2, 4; Literature Resource Center; Major 20th-Century Writers, Eds. 1, 2; Modern American Women Writers; Novels for Students, Vols. 1, 6, 8, 14; Reference Guide to American Literature, Ed. 4; St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers; Something about the Author, Vol. 57; Short Stories for Students, Vol. 5; and Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers.