'Ship and harbour; inn and trail': Toni Morrison on mothering

This dissertation reads Toni Morrison as a theorist of African American motherhood and mother-daughter relationship. Her thinking illuminates the traditions of both Anglo-American and African American feminism and develops a fully articulated theory of what I term the African American motherline.;In Morrison, the motherline connects African Americans to the funkiness of black cultural identity and, for daughters, to the ancient properties of traditional black womanhood. Only in connection to the past, Morrison believes, is there hope for the future.;In order to place Morrison's work in a theoretical context, the first chapter examines both Anglo-American and African American formulations of motherhood. Chapter Two explores Morrison's own reflections on motherhood in her articles and her interviews. The subsequent six chapters read the novels chronologically as a developing theory of mothering.;Mothering, for Morrison, is a profoundly political act because mothers pass on to their children the ancient properties and funkiness that sustain African Americans. In loving their children, mothers give them the self-love which enables daughters to mother. Morrison is concerned with the cultural practices that separate African Americans from their motherline, the social and psychological ramifications of that separation, and how disconnection can be resisted, and the motherline reclaimed.