The Obfuscation of Memory and Trauma in Postmodern Slave Narrative: “I’m Beloved and She is mine”. A case study Beloved by Toni Morrison

Abstract

The leitmotif of slavery was the nexus of several writers. They forage for the traumatized exigencies of slaves by wielding copious narrative styles to obstruct the stereotypical simulacrum of slavery. Toni Morrison was among those writers, who rallied against the expunction of the unspeakable slaves. Via the use of postmodern slave narrative, indubitably, she tends to rewrite the slave history in Beloved, in which she adopts the story of Margaret Garner who escaped from the institution of slavery, by using the fictitious character Sethe. This study investigates How Toni Morrison uses the postmodern slave narrative to portray the Trauma and memory of slavery, by the use of qualitative, as well as analytical, and Descriptive approaches to analyze closely the depiction of trauma and memory in Beloved. Additionally, the ultimate aim to portray the manifestation of critical race theory in the novel and its emphasis on the historical context of slavery