[en] Abstract: Though Toni Morrison’s oeuvre has received a breadth of criticism, critics seem to disregard the representation of tears in her work. In this paper, I examine the metaphorical meanings and functions of literary tears in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Home, and God Help the Child and argue that Morrison’s literary portrayal of crying is neither meant to thrill the reader nor to create sensation. Rather, Morrison invites readers to regard tears as the direct outcome and result of traumatic encounters and shameful life-threatening events her characters endure. Thus, this paper combines and seeks to bridge the gap between literary discussions of trauma (developed by Laurie Vickroy, J. Brooks Bouson etc.) and the theorization of “tear” in the field of psychology (Tom Lutz, William H. Frey, and Judith K. Nelson among many others). By featuring the characters’ tears in these novels, I explore how Toni Morrison renders the difficulties experienced by African Americans as they attempt to redefine and reconstruct their split identities in a land of deep racial animus. More significantly, in doing so, I contend that such representations of tears are fruitful tropes through which Morrison addresses issues of family dislocations, ruptured communities, and socioeconomic marginalization. In this paper, I aim to deconstruct received understanding of crying often associated with (female) weakness and idealized notions of crying as excessive and/or uncontrolled emotionality. Instead, in my talk, I attempt to conceptualize tears in Morrison’s works as means for self-awareness that can enable true spiritual growth.
