Final project presentation for Literature and Popular Music class over Jazz by Toni Morrison

1. Dissection of Toni Morrison’s
Jazz
The importance of tracking and tracing
By:
Catherine Parsley

2. Tracking and Tracing in Jazz
• Joe’s last name- Trace
• Hunter’s Hunter- tracking in the country
• Joe’s search for Dorcas- tracking in the
city
• Joe had to track Dorcas down but simply
found Violet
– Dorcas is like Wild- difference between
country and city again

3. Beginnings
• I first noticed the theme of tracking on
page 130 in this passage:
–Toni Morrison’s reading of Jazz
Audio 1

4. Page 130 in Jazz
Image 1

5. What I noticed
• The first thing I noticed when I read this
passage was the two different spellings of
the same word
– “hoofmarks” and “hoof marks”
• Is there supposed to be this difference?
• What does it mean?
• Can these questions be answered using
Morrison’s reading of Jazz?

6. Difference in sound
“hoofmarks” “hoof marks”
Do they sound different?
Audio 2 Audio 3

7. Difference in looks
“hoofmarks” “hoof marks”
Do the audio waves look different?
Image 2 Image 3

8. What’s the meaning?
• I have concluded that the space has been put in for
emphasis
– Morrison doesn’t use other techniques for emphasis, and
if the words are read differently, they mean slightly
different things
• It is hard to use the audio version as a measuring stick
– It can be considered its own literary form and not a
duplicate of the printed version
– Vocal inflection can do the job for you when you are
listening, but the text needs a different cue for when it is
read silently
• With the second use of the word, Morrison is stressing
that Joe cannot live without the hoof marks because
then he would not longer have a trail to keep him in
check

9. The
End

10. Sources used in the project
Primary Sources
• Morrison, Toni. Jazz. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print.
• Image 1- photograph of page 130 in Toni Morrison’s Jazz. Taken by
Catherine Parsley, 11-27-10.
• Image 2- audio waves for “hoofmarks”. Taken from Audacity using a
screen grab, 11-23-10.
• Image 3- audio waves for “hoof marks”. Taken from Audacity using a
screen grab, 11-23-10.
• Audio 1- Toni Morrison reading Jazz, page 130. Edited from secondary
source by Catherine Parsley, 11-11-10.
• Audio 2- “hoofmarks”. Edited from secondary source by Catherine
Parsley, 11-16-10.
• Audio 3- “hoof marks”. Edited from secondary source by Catherine
Parsley, 11-16-10.
Secondary Sources
• Morrison, Toni. Jazz. 1992. Read by Toni Morrison. Audiocassette.
Random House, 1992.