Re-read the following passage from Morrison’s “Recitatif”:
“Did I tell you? My mother, she never did stop dancing.”
“Yes. You told me. And mine, she never got well.” Roberta lifted her hands from the tabletop and covered her face with her palms. When she took them away she really was crying. “Oh, shit, Twyla. Shit, shit, shit. What the hell happened to Maggie?” (2451)
In a blog post between 500 and 700 words, use this passage to reflect on how the story, as a whole, represents a particular sweep of twentieth-century history. If a characteristic of postmodern culture is the way in which multiple perspectives on the past, present, and future are in contention, never resolving into the one, “true” perspective, how does “Recitatif” engage this idea?
Sample Solution