Editing Toni Morrison (section)

=== Relationship to feminism ===
Although her novels typically concentrate on black women, Morrison did not identify her works as [[Feminism|feminist]]. When asked in a 1998 interview, "Why distance oneself from feminism?" she replied: "In order to be as free as I possibly can, in my own imagination, I can't take positions that are closed. Everything I've ever done, in the writing world, has been to expand articulation, rather than to close it, to open doors, sometimes, not even closing the book&nbsp;– leaving the endings open for reinterpretation, revisitation, a little ambiguity."<ref name="salon">{{cite web|last=Jaffrey|first=Zia|url=http://www.salon.com/1998/02/02/cov_si_02int/|title=The Salon Interview – Toni Morrison|date=February 3, 1998|work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]]|access-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref> She went on to state that she thought it "off-putting to some readers, who may feel that I'm involved in writing some kind of feminist tract. I don't subscribe to patriarchy, and I don't think it should be substituted with matriarchy. I think it's a question of equitable access, and opening doors to all sorts of things."<ref name="salon" />

In 2012, she responded to a question about the difference between black and white feminists in the 1970s. "[[Womanism|Womanists]] is what black feminists used to call themselves", she explained. "They were not the same thing. And also the relationship with men. Historically, black women have always sheltered their men because they were out there, and they were the ones that were most likely to be killed."<ref name=":5" />

W. S. Kottiswari writes in ''Postmodern Feminist Writers'' (2008) that Morrison exemplifies characteristics of "[[postmodern feminism]]" by "altering Euro-American dichotomies by rewriting a history written by mainstream historians" and by her usage of shifting narration in ''Beloved'' and ''Paradise''. Kottiswari states: "Instead of western logocentric abstractions, Morrison prefers the powerful vivid language of women of color&nbsp;... She is essentially postmodern since her approach to myth and folklore is re-visionist."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zVStc4m8euEC&q=toni+morrison+postmodern+feminist&pg=PA48|title=Postmodern Feminist Writers|last=Kottiswara|first=W. S.|publisher=Sarup & Sons|year=2008|location=New Delhi|pages=48–86|isbn=978-8176258210}}</ref>