دراسات فنية
Volume 12, Numéro 1, Pages 396-408
2025-12-12
Past In The Flesh: Destabilizing Slavery Memories In Tony Morrison’s Beloved (1987)
Authors : Belmerabet Fatiha .
Abstract
In a series of flashbacks, Beloved's narration sways between present life and past memories of its characters, who continuously invoke their shocking experiences with slavery, loss, motherhood, and sacrifice. Toni Morrison’s non-linearity in depicting their stories challenges their attempts to identify themselves as free slaves. The recalled memories are supported by the apparition of Beloved, Sethe’s deceased young daughter, who worsens her feelings of guilt. The present paper aims to discuss Sethe's abrupt memories that impede her psychological emancipation from the past and cause her self-damage. It also seeks to uncover some of slavery's physical and psychological effects on Black people, which history often leaves untold. Through careful textual analysis, this research investigates the major impacts of the traumatic past on the present. It scrutinises the omnipresent and disturbing nature of the past by addressing the constituents of this painful haunting. It also aims to explore the implications of this haunting on the protagonists' lives and how they engage with, reject, or repress their past experiences. Ultimately, to comprehend the novel's broad perspective on the past, it is important to discover the extent to which the characters can evade or confront the haunting and whether such evasion is still possible.
Keywords
Beloved ; slavery ; traumatic past ; psychological emancipation ; haunting
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