Reading the Onomastic Text: ‘The Politics of the Proper Name’ in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

Abstract

Critics of Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon have concentrated on names' “meanings” in the novel and their role in defining various characters. The narrative implications of names, however, have been largely ignored. I address the relationship between naming and fictionality in the novel and regard the text as a maze of legends, tales, and histories of names and naming, where the main characters' search for these forgotten stories is a quest for identity.