Ethnic Studies Texts - Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination by Toni Morrison (1992)

In this book, Toni Morrison looks at writers from Edgar Allan Poe to Ernest Hemingway to show how important race is in the work of white American authors. According to her, race and ethnicity are just built in to our experiences and perspectives, so we can't ignore these issues, even if they don't seem to be obviously present.

1. According to Morrison, what are some of the problems in the approach of literary critics to the study American literature?
2. Why does Morrison think it's so important to study and understand the "Africanist presence" in American literature?