The Play with Perception and Prejudice in Tony Morrison's Recitatif and Shani Mootoo's Out on Main Street

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Table of Contents: 1.Introduction: Modern vs. Myth: p. 1 2.Recitatif: p. 1-7: 2.1. Race and hierarchy: p.1-2 2.2. Maggie and the Mothers: p.3 2.3. The death of the author: p.4-5 2.4. The meaning of bussing: p. 6-7 3.Out on Main Street and around: p. 8-13 3.1. Race and hierarchy: p. 8-9 3.2. Language: p.9-11 3.3. Gender and coming out: p.11-14 4.Conclusion: p. 14 As our literature has changed so greatly over the past century, an interesting story which still meets the expectations of the new age has become a rather rare thing. Writing about important concerns of our time- gender, racism and alienation- appears to be considered sophisticated enough only if exerting a certain sterile aura. Cold neon light on rainy night streets, lonely single households saturated with inner dialogue, colourless sex and relationships are among the images and means preferred by writers (and critics) in portraying the last couple of decades. Why, even reading a celebrated modernist like Douglas Copland, who describes alienation among nowadays people so well, can give one the feeling of digesting a plastic bag instead of something juicy, like the mockingbird of Harper Lee, say. And while the sterile taste should be a deliberate effect of Copland's and many others, it is not easy for the average reader to familiarize with it. Even if literature indeed describes the human ages, and influences them, human taste for it does not seem to change much over the centuries. We need only to consider Harry Potter's triumphant take- over on the literary field from the last decade to see it. Perhaps only the most accomplished writers understand that even in the 21th century humans still like to learn from myths the best. In any case, given the choice between modern writing and an instilling, imaginative one, most people would choose the latter. Now might be also the

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