2008 Woodie Awards
Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison addresses race, writing, citizenship
By: Matthew Stone, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 9/15/06 Section: News
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Striking a conversational, spontaneous tone and interspersing her remarks with witty asides, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison last Tuesday introduced a packed and engaged audience to her writing process and explained the issues addressed in her written works.
Morrison, in delivering Tuesday's convocation address, became the third high-profile speaker since March to visit campus for the inauguration of the Institute for Global Citizenship.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman kicked off the speaker series in March, followed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan '61, who spoke here and attended a luncheon in April. The Institute is an ongoing bureaucratic reorganization that administrators say will incorporate a trained focus on global citizenship throughout the college.
In her speech, Morrison briefly noted that her visit was in service to the Institute. She said that now is a "critical" time to engage in global affairs as a citizen.
"A lot of energy and intelligence are put in the service of limitations, of defining borders, whether they're cultural, political or racial," said Morrison, a Princeton University professor and 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Should such trends continue, Morrison said, grave days loom ahead for the state of education, when it becomes a challenge to preserve "unbought [sic] science, sound history, integrity of art [and] not its celebrity."
Morrison devoted the remainder of her address to discussing her written works, which include eight books that have garnered widespread acclaim. In May, The New York Times named her novel "Beloved" as the "best work of American fiction of last 25 years." (She later called the idea of ranking novels "unwise" in response to an audience question.)
Quoting extensively from her works, Morrison described her writing process.
"The ending is the heart of the narrative," she said. "I cannot begin a book until I know the ending."
Morrison, in delivering Tuesday's convocation address, became the third high-profile speaker since March to visit campus for the inauguration of the Institute for Global Citizenship.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman kicked off the speaker series in March, followed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan '61, who spoke here and attended a luncheon in April. The Institute is an ongoing bureaucratic reorganization that administrators say will incorporate a trained focus on global citizenship throughout the college.
In her speech, Morrison briefly noted that her visit was in service to the Institute. She said that now is a "critical" time to engage in global affairs as a citizen.
"A lot of energy and intelligence are put in the service of limitations, of defining borders, whether they're cultural, political or racial," said Morrison, a Princeton University professor and 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Should such trends continue, Morrison said, grave days loom ahead for the state of education, when it becomes a challenge to preserve "unbought [sic] science, sound history, integrity of art [and] not its celebrity."
Morrison devoted the remainder of her address to discussing her written works, which include eight books that have garnered widespread acclaim. In May, The New York Times named her novel "Beloved" as the "best work of American fiction of last 25 years." (She later called the idea of ranking novels "unwise" in response to an audience question.)
Quoting extensively from her works, Morrison described her writing process.
"The ending is the heart of the narrative," she said. "I cannot begin a book until I know the ending."
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