Genre Study: "Recitatif"
Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” is a confusing story for a myriad of reasons, from its name to the ever-changing incident with Maggie. “Recitatif” is also complicated due to its inability to fit perfectly into commonly accepted definitions of a short story. Edgar Allen Poe describes a short story as a “unity of effect and impression,” and Brander Matthews adds to this definition by stating that a short story “shows one action, in one place, on one day. A Short-story deals with a single character, a single event, a single emotion, or the series of emotions called forth by a single situation.” Based on these definitions, “Recitatif” hardly seems like a short story with its multiple characters and events, but I think that if Poe’s and Matthews’ definitions are expanded, “Recitatif” does belong to the short story genre. The first way “Recitatif” differs from Matthews’ definition of a short story is with its two protagonists: Twyla and Roberta. While the story is narrated from Twyla’s ...