George Mason University--Text and Community Program presents


History, Wholeness, Memory:
Interpreting Toni Morrison's Beloved


Each year the Text and Community Program conducts a semester-long project at George Mason University that seeks to foster exchanges across disciplines and interpretations of a text from multiple perspectives. For the spring 1997 semester, the Text and Community Program will be hosting a series of events centered around Toni Morrison's 1987 novel Beloved, and you are invited to participate in all of these upcoming activities:


    Faculty Roundtable: Different
    Disciplinary Approaches
    to Reading Beloved
      Wednesday, February 12, 1997, 12-1:15 p.m.,
      in the Johnson Center Multipurpose Room

      The event will include thoughts from:

      Rutledge Dennis, Sociology and Anthropology
      Gloria Murray, Graduate School of Education
      Suzanne Smith, History
      Margaret Yocom, Folklore and English

      A reception follows the discussion.


    Performance Artist Kwelismith
    presents "Red"

      Thursday, March 6, 1997, 7:30 p.m.,
      in Harris Theater

      Kwelismith bring to the stage a multi-media piece that synthesizes literature, music, monologue, and dance as a "meditation" on Beloved.


    Lecture by Trudier Harris, Ph.D.
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

      Wednesday, March 26, 1997, 5:55-7:10 p.m.,
      in Enterprise Hall, Room 80

      Trudier Harris speaks on "Survival Beyond Strength: The Price of Strength in Toni Morrison's Beloved." A reception and book signing follows.


    Theatre of the Diaspora
    presents "A Hot Thing"

      Thursday, April 17, 1997, 5 p.m.,
      in Harris Theater

      Performed by the The Theatre of Diaspora and written by Mark Williams, this original one-act play interprets the ambiguous, puzzling, and provocative phrase--"A Hot Thing"--encountered late in the text of Beloved. A discussion with the players and writer follows the presentation.


    Lecture by Marilyn
    Sanders Mobley, Ph.D.
    George Mason University

      Wednesday, April 30, 1997, 5:55-7:10 p.m.,
      at Enterprise Hall, Room 80

      Marilyn Sanders Mobley discusses "Recollections of the Body in Beloved: Agency in the Context of Oppression." Following the lecture, there will be a reception and a book signing.


    Essay Contest

      The winner will receive a $50 honorarium and a chance to work with the editors to put together the magazine The GMU Review.

      Length: 2,000-3,500 words.
      Deadline: April 10, 1997

      Submissions should be sent c/o Ethan Fugate to Mason's English Department. Hard copies of the submissions should be accompanied by 3.5 disk (Word or WP) and include name, address, and telephone number. E-mail submissions will not be accepted due to printing constraints. For more information, contact Ethan Fugate at efugate@gmu.edu.


    Web Forum

      You can participate in an online Web Forum, talking to your peers, faculty, or the community about the issues that arise from the novel Beloved.



    If you would like to find out more about Toni Morrison and her book Beloved, go to http://osf1.gmu.edu/~wcenter/beloved/ where the GMU Writing Center has listed related resources on the web.

    Any questions can be posed electronically to members of the Text & Community Committee: Zofia Burr (zburr@gmu.edu), Keith Clark (kclark1@gmu.edu), or Jim Henry, Chair (jhenry@gmu.edu).

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