The Identifying Fictions of Toni Morrison proposes that identity is fluid for the Nobel Prize-winning author, both on and off the page. This book offers close readings of Morrison's own statements from interviews and essays, combined with in-depth chapters on Morrison's most frequently discussed novels. John Duvall provides an important context for understanding Morrison's fiction, revealing the ways in which she endeavored to put her own self-made image-that of the African American woman novelist-to work. This book offers the first sustained treatment of the autobiographical tendencies in Morrison's work and delves into the very heart of her novels.