Somewhere between the short story and the novel is the novella. Read and discuss The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) by Muriel Spark and then The Bluest Eye (1970) by Toni Morrison. Tightly written and potent, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is set in Edinburgh in the 1930s where themes of obedience and obsession and personal attraction’s delights and costs are woven into a story of an unconventional teacher and the chosen students she has taken into her confidence. The second book, The Bluest Eye, is set in 1941 in Morrison's hometown of Lorain, Ohio, where the subjects are the danger of beauty, its allure, and its absence for a young Black girl. In these two works, both Spark and Morrison excavate how identity is formed and who shapes it. Please use the Penguin Modern Classics paperback international edition from 2000 of Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and the Vintage International paperback edition from 2007 of Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Before the first class, read “Meet Muriel Spark” at the back (pp. 2-7) as well as chapters 1 and 2 of the book. Discussion prompts for analyzing the readings and shaping the class discussion will be emailed in advance.
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