Blue Ridge Mountain Gumbo: Toni Morrison’s <i>Song of Solomon</i> and Appalachian Literature

Toni Morrison’s novel <i>Song of Solomon</i> (1977) reveals relations between African American literature and Appalachian literature that have hitherto been ignored. Analyzing scholarship on Appalachian literature alongside Morrison’s novel highlights similarities between African American literature and Appalachian literature, such as connections to oral folklore, discussions of who constitutes a representative author of the canon, and sense of place. However, by placing Morrison’s novel against a rubric of traditional/scholarly conceptions of Appalachian literature, we find an absence in the scholarship on issues relevant to African American literature, such as migration, violent racism, and the present-day legacies of slavery on African American families. This regionalist approach to Toni Morrison’s fiction furthers the efforts of scholars interested in African American Appalachian/Affrilachian history and culture.