What does the title of the story Recitatif mean?
The title of Toni Morrison's short story, Recitatif," means, among other things, "a recital" of some sort, and the protagonist, Twyla, provides us with a "recital" of her connect with Roberta, also placed in the shelter where Twyla once lived.
What is the race of the character Recitatif?
Morrison deliberately wrote "Recitatif" to be a story about a white woman and a Black woman, but she does not indicate which character is which race. The ambiguity forces the reader to think about race and about how it shapes the way characters are perceived. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. What races are Twyla and Roberta?
What is the erroneous contraction of recite-a-life into Recitatif?
The erroneous contraction of recite-a-life into recitatif is something that fits with the way language is used in Toni Morrison 's short story " Recitatif " (1983), written to preserve the rhythms of spoken phrases.
What are the best ways to track themes in Recitatif?
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Recitatif, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Twyla, the narrator, explains that she and Roberta were in a shelter called St. Bonny’s because Twyla’s mother “ danced all night” and Roberta’s mother was “sick.”
Why is the story named Recitatif?
"Recitatif" is Toni Morrison's only published short story. The title alludes to a style of musical declamation that hovers between song and ordinary speech; it is used for dialogic and narrative interludes during operas and oratories.
What does the word Recitatif mean?
Recitatif, recitative | ˌrɛsɪtəˈtiːv | noun [mass noun] 1. Musical declamation of the kind usual in the narrative and dialogue parts of opera and oratorio, sung in the rhythm of ordinary speech with many words on the same note: singing in recitative. 2. The tone or rhythm peculiar to any language.
What is the point of Recitatif?
In "Recitatif," Toni Morrison examines how a person's memory can shift or eliminate an event from their past. Twyla often thinks about Maggie and how the older girls laughed when she fell in the orchard. She also remembers, with guilt, how she and Roberta called Maggie names.
What are the symbols of the story Recitatif?
“Recitatif” is filled with symbolic settings, including Twyla and Roberta's bedroom, the chapel, Howard Johnson's, the gourmet market, and the Newburgh diner. However, none is as important or meaningful as the orchard at St. Bonny's…
How does the title of Recitatif relate to the story?
The title refers to the French form of “recitative,” a style of delivery sometimes used in operas when a performer sings ordinary speech, often during interludes. This refers to the episodic nature of the story that brings together the two characters—Twyla and Roberta—in five “moments, all narrated by Twyla.
Is Twyla black or white?
Elizabeth Abel, who is a white feminist writer, viewed Twyla as white because she focused on the social situations in which the characters find themselves. Abel also mentions that most white readers read Twyla as white, while most black readers read Twyla as black (Abel 471).
What is the significance of Twyla in Recitatif?
Twyla is the narrator of the story, and along with Roberta is its main character. She is eight years old when the story opens, and has been brought to live at St.
What is the significance of the orchard in Recitatif?
The orchard is thus an Edenic symbol (related to the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden)—a place where childhood innocence gives way to the “sins” of cruelty, vanity, and adolescent sexuality. Twyla is too young to fully comprehend the significance of the orchard while she lives at St.
What race is Maggie in Recitatif?
Roberta also claims that Maggie is black, a fact that Twyla disputes (along with the memory of her and Roberta kicking her).
What is the significance of Maggie in Toni Morrison's Recitatif?
Maggie also represents the two main characters mother's. Maggie is also the last person we are left thinking about at the end of the story. She has a connection with all the characters in the story and that is why she is important. Maggie is used to represent Roberta and Twyla's mothers.
What does dancing symbolize in Recitatif?
Dancing thus signifies an ominous future that Roberta and Twyla want to escape. Note that during the 1950s and '60s, when the first parts of the story are set, many contemporary forms of dance popular among young people were associated with deviant sexuality and immorality.
What is the problem in Recitatif?
Conflict. Morrison defines Recitatif as "an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative". She combines the issue of discrimination and the victimization of individuals through the kitchen woman, Maggie while never exposing the ethnicity of any character.
Recitatif Summary
- The short story opens when Twyla declares that she and Roberta are in the Orphanage of St. Bonny because Roberts’s mother was ill, and Twyla’s mother had danced all night. When the story opens, the two of them do not appear to have to save viewpoints. Mary taught Twyla to have biased views of the people of Roberta’s race. When Twyla tells this to the woman in charge of th…
Background of The Story
- Historical Context
The short story “Recitatif” is set in three different time periods. All of these time periods saw shifts in culture and racial tensions in the United States. The first part of the story took place in the 1950s when Twyla and Roberta were eighteen years old. It was the time when the Civil Rights M… - Literary Context
The short story “Recitatif” was published during the time when in the global culture, there was an increasing acceptance and celebration of the literature of African-Americans. Several other key movements of the twentieth century, like that of the Harlem Renaissance, preceded the moveme…
Characters Analysis
- Twyla
She is the narrator of “Recitatif.” She is the main character of the story, along with Roberta. When the story opens, she is eight years old. She has been brought to St. Bonny’s Orphanage because her mother dances all night. Mary has abandoned her daughter and taught her biases towards th… - Roberta
Besides Twyla, Roberta is another main character of the story. Roberta is the roommate of Twyla at St, Bonny’s orphanage. Both of the girls are eight years old. One of the girls in white, and while the other is black, however, it is ambiguous which race belongs to which race. Roberta’s mother …
Themes
- Friendship vs. Family
The short story “Recitatif” is an account of the two girls’ friendship, Roberta and Twyla. They meet in the orphanage or shelter St. Bunny’s. There are lots of parallels between the two girls, which creates a sense that they are twins. They are of the same age; their mothers are alive but could … - Outcasts, Outsiders and the Unwanted
The initial setting of the short story “Recitatif” inside an orphanage /shelter launches a theme of alienation and social exclusion that is carried throughout the story. In the shelter, the children brought to be raised whose parents are dead or cannot take care of them. Twyla says that she a…
Literary Analysis
- Between 1955 and 1968, a movement named as the African-American Civil Rights movement reigned in the United States. The main agenda of the movement was to illegalize the racial discrimination and sufferings of African-Americans. Like any other powerful movement, the movement initiates collective changes in American society both mentally and physically. In any …