{"product_id":"cant-i-love-what-i-susan-neal-mayberry-9780820381305","title":"Can't I Love What I Criticize?: The Masculine and Morrison","description":"\u003cp\u003eTaking a close look at all the key male figures in Toni Morrison's eight novels, this book explores Morrison's admitted, but critically neglected, interest in the relationships between African American men and women and the \"axes\" on which these relationships turn. While most Morrison scholarship deals with her female characters, \u003ci\u003eCan't I Love What I Criticize? \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a response to this imbalance and to Morrison's call for more work on men, who remain, in her words, \"outside of that little community value thing.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book also considers the barriers between Black men and women thrown up by their participation in a larger, historically racist culture of competition, ownership, sexual repression, and fixed ideals about physical beauty and romantic love. Black women, Morrison says, bear their crosses \"extremely well,\" and Black men, although they have been routinely emasculated by \"white men, period,\" have managed to maintain a feisty \"magic\" that everybody wants but nobody else has. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUnderstanding Morrison's treatment of her male characters becomes crucial to grasping her success in \"countering the damage done by a spectrum of sometimes misguided isms\"--including white American feminism. Morrison's version of masculinity suggests that Black men have \"successfully retained their special vitality in spite of white male resistance\" and that \"their connections to Black women have saved their lives.\" To single out her men is not to negate the preeminence of her women; rather, it is to recognize the interconnectedness and balance between them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Susan Neal Mayberry\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0820381306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780820381305\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Georgia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/15\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 352\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Susan Neal Mayberry","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49001189212415,"sku":"9780820381305","price":30.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/cant-i-love-what-i-susan-neal-mayberry-9780820381305","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}