PERIL by Toni Morrison

 

PERIL by Toni Morrison

 

‘Peril’ was first presented as a speech at the PEN International Festival in 2008. Later it was published as the introductory essay of the book that she edited, Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word in 2009.

The organisation known today as PEN International began in London, UK, in 1921, simply as PEN. The name PEN was conceived as an acronym: ‘Poets, Essayists, Novelists’ (later broadened to ‘Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists’). They stand for the idea that, “Literature knows no frontiers and must remain common currency among people in spite of political or international upheavals”.

Toni Morrison believed that language has the power to change the world and authors have the responsibility to defend free expression. Her essay /speech emphasises on the power of word to inspire and transform the world and the need for it to be protected. The ‘truth’ upheld by writers may challenge despots and authoritarian regimes. So, these writers might be perceived as ‘danger by the despots, but their execution/ silence is danger to truth itself. Morrison explains what peril or serious and immediate danger to different groups is.

The alarm/ disquiet raised by writers are instructive. It is threatening to the authoritarian regimes. Hence the history of persecuted writers is as long as the history pf literature itself. When chaos strike, it is writers who construct meaning amidst the stillness, passivity and fear. They can translate trauma and sorrow into words and create meaning out of them.

In short, Morrison argues that it is the writers and their art are essential to challenge power and  to construct meaning. So, a writer’s life is not a gift to mankind, but its necessity. Their words and the liberty to use them freely has to be protected.

 

Prepared by,

Anju Susan Kurian