Racism and Appearance in The Bluest Eye: A Template for an Ethical Emotive Criticism

By focusing on emotions, Morrison challenges not just the way multiculturalism is taught today, but the foundations of higher education itself. English and language departments can lead this revolution by adopting an “emotive” literary criticism focusing on the feelings, moods, and emotional fields in readers as well as texts. For example, by increasing awareness of the fears generated by judging by appearance in The Bluest Eye, Morrison enables more readers to identify with basic situations of racism. By acknowledging such fears in our own classrooms we can carry the battle against racism to a wider audience.