Difference and Intersectionality in Morrison and Kushner
Since finishing Sula last week, the story, its characters, and the person I perceive in the author have stuck in my thoughts. In fact, I’ve found some fascinating commonalities between Toni Morrison’s novel and the play by Tony Kushner, beyond the fact that the two writers share a first name. While reading the former, I had to look up a word I didn’t recognize: ‘gabardine’ (a strong and smooth fabric), which was used to describe the pants, or the crotches of the pants, worn by Ajax and the rest of the Edna Finch ice cream parlor crew (New Oxford American Dictionary, Morrison 50, 129). Reading the recently learned word in Kushner’s “Angels in America” to indicate typical Jewish garb was a treat, but more importantly it got me thinking about what else these works might have in common (Kushner 91).
First I thought of the powerful political overtones in each, considering what Morrison says about the presence of political discourse in fictional works, particularly her critique of the “conventional wisdom” that “agrees that political fiction is not art; that such work is less likely to have aesthetic value because politics––all politics––is agenda and therefore its presence taints aesthetic production” (“Foreword”). Both Morrison and Kushner discredit this highly limiting perspective by succeeding exquisitely in both realms. Institutions like government, militarism, and of course racism are highly critiqued in each. And each explore themes of difference and intersectionality in order to emphasize the aspects of our culture that tend to pit individuals against the communities or society of which they are a part. Morrison and Kushner do all this while also paying obvious artistic attention to the crafting of words, images, and symbols throughout their respective stories. Morrison chooses to trace change in her four main characters, whom she situates at different points of a cross, distinguished as much by their distinct directions as by the common intersection at which they all meet, over the span of half a century, highlighting how various forces can affect people of the same family, community, or race in vastly different ways. Similarly, Kushner’s fantastical cast includes characters with many overlapping identities based on race, religion, politics, class, social status, and sexual preference, etc. But by giving each character at least one thing in common with another, while maintaining meaningful difference and individualism in all of them, Kushner effectively dismantles the possibility of reducing his seemingly stereotypical cast to simple, generic archetypes. For example, in Act III, scene 2 of “Part I: Millennium Approaches,” at the coffee shop with Louis and Belize, we witness two gay men, one black “ex-ex” drag queen, one apparently racist Jew, contentiously arguing about prejudice in America. Their discussion shows that a single identity rarely defines a person. For the same reason, Joe and Roy may both be closet homosexuals who vote Republican, and yet have completely contrasting ethical and moral judgment. Indeed, while they both veil their sexuality vehemently in public, Roy still indulges in his in private, whereas Joe has spent his entire life rejecting his true urges, which he deems immoral as a result of his Mormonism. Joe’s situation brings up another crucial point: sometimes people sacrifice one facet of their identity for another, which further supports the notion that people are incredibly complex creatures.
Kushner, like Morrison, doesn’t need to sacrifice aesthetic in order to achieve his politically minded play. His split scenes, dream sequences, hallucinations, overlapping dialogue, and mutual threshold revelations all contribute to giving his play multidimensionality, while complementing his aforementioned socially conscious presentation of difference. Instead of explicitly stating commonalities among his characters, he allows those who might never convene in reality, to meet and share in a more celestial or mystical space and discourse. Or, he has actors performing multiple roles, the meaning of which I hope we can further discuss in class. Overall, these authors manage to make poignant observations about the respective cultures they address, while also satisfying their own artistic drives, to the utmost benefit of their readership.
P.S. The HBO adaptation of “Angels in America” does total justice to Kushner’s play in my opinion. I highly recommend it!
Works Cited
“Gabardine.” New Oxford American Dictionary. 3rd ed. 2010. Web.
Tags: aesthetic, Angels in America, difference, intersectionality, political fiction, relativism, Sula, Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner
