Exhuming the past : trauma, narrative, and the function of ghosts in Toni Morrison's novel Beloved

Toni Morrison???s novel Beloved, written in 1987, is a response to previous slave narratives as a result of a change in historiography stemming from the Black Power movement of the previous two decades. In this neo-slave narrative, Morrison attempts to\ud fill in the gaps that historical writings have left out and give a voice to those left silenced\ud by the horrific traumatic experiences of slavery. I will focus on the function of trauma, narrative, and ghosts in the novel and more specifically on five main aspects of her response to slavery. Using Judith Herman???s definition of trauma from Trauma and Recovery, and Nathan Irving Huggins book The Black Odyssey I will illustrate the horrific conditions of slavery, and the traumatic effects on the individual, family, and on subsequent generations, including PTSD. I will then address the affects one ???Sweet\ud Home Man???, Paul D, has on the trauma residing in the house and then on the memories\ud of Sethe, the protagonist, and Denver, her daughter. The next section will focus on Mourning and Melancholy using Sigmund Freud???s theory on the latency of trauma, followed by how the novel, as well as the bodies of the characters, function as crypts and\ud how the novel itself is a tool being used by Morrison to dig up the dead stories and subsequently, give them a proper reburial through the memorialization of the text, including an examination of the function of the ghosts that consequently arise. In conclusion, I will highlight how the novel resembles a palimpsest and responds to previous narratives, further layering the stories of slavery, and how Morrison expertly provides an invitation for healing within the community in the book and the community of readers as well