Length2h 25m
About this audiobook
“The Origin of Others combines Toni Morrison’s accustomed eloquence with meaning for our times as citizens of the world.” —Nell Irvin Painter, New Republic
Available for the first time in audio, America’s most revered novelist reflects on the themes that preoccupy her work and increasingly dominate national and world politics: race, fear, borders, the mass movement of peoples, the desire for belonging. What is race and why does it matter? What motivates the human tendency to construct Others? Why does the presence of Others make us so afraid?
Drawing on her 2016 Norton Lectures, Toni Morrison takes up these and other vital questions bearing on identity in The Origin of Others. In her search for answers, the novelist considers her own memories as well as history, politics, and especially literature. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Camara Laye are among the authors she examines. Readers of Morrison’s fiction will welcome her discussions of some of her most celebrated books—Beloved, Paradise, and A Mercy.
If we learn racism by example, then literature plays an important part in the history of race in America, both negatively and positively. Morrison writes about nineteenth-century literary efforts to romance slavery, contrasting them with the scientific racism of Samuel Cartwright and the banal diaries of the plantation overseer and slaveholder Thomas Thistlewood. She looks at configurations of Blackness, notions of racial purity, and the ways in which literature employs skin color to reveal character or drive narrative. Expanding the scope of her concern, she also addresses globalization and the mass movement of peoples in this century. National Book Award winner Ta-Nehisi Coates provides a foreword to Morrison’s most personal work of nonfiction.
Audiobook details
GenrePsychology, Literary Classics, Philosophy
Length2 hrs 25 mins
Narrated byRobin Miles
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 27, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
Finding Your VoiceMannette Morgan8h 10m$20
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m$24 · $0.00
I've Been to the MountaintopMartin Luther King48m$11 · $0.00
Ullathin KuralPrem Rawat8h 17m$18 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m$24 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m$26 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h$2 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m$29 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 23m$1 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m$29 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0.00
Charles Dickens: Complete WorksCharles Dickens814h 50m$2 · $0.00
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate CollectionArthur Conan Doyle59h 49m$5 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Novels, Short Stories and Autobiographical WritingsFyodor Dostoyevsky271h 27m$2 · $0.00
L. M. Montgomery – Premium Collection: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry & MemoirsLucy Maud Montgomery155h 55m$2 · $0.00
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Ultimate Collection: ALL 38 Plays & Complete PoetryWilliam Shakespeare153h 55m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Books of F. Scott Fitzgerald (all his 5 novels + all 4 short story collections published during his lifetime)F. Scott Fitzgerald87h 53m$2 · $0.00
MARK TWAIN: 12 Novels, 195 Short Stories, Autobiography, 10 Travel Books, 160+ Essays & Speeches (Illustrated)Mark Twain416h 24m$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m$18 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of the Brontë SistersCharlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë118h 51m$2 · $0.00
Louisa May Alcott: 16 Novels in One Volume (Illustrated Edition)Louisa May Alcott141h 35m$2 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
The Complete Works of Oscar WildeOscar Wilde80h 38m$1 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m$2 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Richard Wagamese SelectedRichard Wagamese3h 14m$15
Shōgun, Part OneJames Clavell24h 19m$35
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 40m$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge6h$2 · $0.00
The Complete Novels of Leo Tolstoy in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series)Leo Tolstoy213h 41m$2 · $0.00
Old Path White CloudsThich Nhat Hanh16h 39m$25
Plato: Complete WorksPlato141h 44m$2 · $0.00
WitnessAriel Burger8h 1m$20 · $0.00
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus GarveyMarcus Mosiah Garvey3h 1m$2 · $0.00
The Way to a Beautiful WorldJames Norbury44m$9 · $0.00
The Collected Works of Friedrich NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche92h$2 · $0.00
The Practicing StoicWard Farnsworth9h 56m$20
The Complete Essays of MontaigneMichel de Montaigne45h 30m$1 · $0.00
Moral Letters to LuciliusLucius Annaeus Seneca25h 38m$2 · $0.00
Tâo Teh KingLaozi2h 38m$1 · $0.00
The LawFrédéric Bastiat2h 7m$10
IlluminationsWalter Benjamin10h 12m$20 · $0.00
Buddhist Boot CampTimber Hawkeye2h 39m$18 · $0.00
The DhammapadaFriedrich Max Müller1h 30m$15
Change Your MindRJ Spina7h 5m$17
Tao Te ChingLao Tzu1h 25m$2 · $0.00
Tao Te ChingStephen Mitchell, Lao Tzu1h 42m$16 · $0.00
Everyday DharmaSuneel Gupta5h 2m$20 · $0.00
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on LoveMartin Luther King10h 2m$29 · $0.00
Thoughts of Marcus AureliusEmperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius7h 28m$2 · $0.00
You may also like
The Honest Truth About DishonestyDan Ariely8h 36m$26 · $0.00
Progressive MoralityThomas Fowler3h 37m$1 · $0.00
The Essence of AestheticBenedetto Croce3h 13m$2 · $0.00
EthicsImmanuel Kant23h 17m$2 · $0.00
Science of Logic (Summarized Edition)Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel3h 43m$2
Fundamental Philosophy (Vol. 1&2)Jaime Luciano Balmes37h 1m$2 · $0.00
The CurtainMilan Kundera4h 40m$20 · $0.00
Marketing for Dummies 2nd Ed.Alexander Hiam3h 6m5 (1)$18 · $0.00
EssaysArthur Christopher Benson8h 31m$2 · $0.00
A Handbook of Ethical TheoryGeorge Stuart Fullerton8h 52m$2 · $0.00
SucceedHeidi Grant Halvorson PhD8h 25m$17 · $0.00
The Quantum MomentRobert P. Crease, Alfred Scharff Goldhaber9h 32m$23
Project Manager Technology SuiteDawn Jones, Sherry Prindle4h 25m$75
How to Rock It like a TED TalkCathey Armillas3h 46m$80
Rising to the TopMade for Success9h 36m$20
The Invisible Hand of the Market: The Theory of Moral Sentiments + The Wealth of NationsAdam Smith59h 8m$1 · $0.00
The Introduction to Hegel's Philosophy of Fine ArtsGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel8h 26m$2 · $0.00
CritoPlato1h 58m$2 · $0.00
The Wealth Around YouAdam Godwod4h 15m$6 · $0.00
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of MoralsImmanuel Kant4h 47m$2 · $0.00