Document Type
Essay
Publication Date
5-9-2025
Abstract
My project “Healing Through Collective Memory: Exploring Psychological Trauma and Community in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic”” is motivated by the traumatic images of the experience in enslavement. The symbolism that Morrison uses in Beloved through the dual role Beloved plays as both a spectator and experiencing trauma firsthand. Morrison surpasses the generic gothic tropes of the ghost through Beloved’s ghostly presence at 124 Bluestone, and later her ability to physically haunt Sethe, forcing her to confront her trauma. Beloved’s appearance collapses the past and the present, forcing Sethe to face her past in an inescapable confrontation with a bodily form. Beloved’s interference also shows how trauma is generational, as the traumatic experience of enslavement that Sethe felt, passed elements of trauma to her daughter, Denver. Beloved serves as a symbol of the trauma that Sethe experiences but in the greater picture, Beloved serves as a symbol of the unresolved trauma of enslaved individuals, as Morrison dedicates her novel to “Sixty Million and more” (Morrison). Finally, my project makes the claim that the only way to heal is through community, supported by Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic,” where she explains how to engage unknown power through feeling in community.
Recommended Citation
McPhilliamy, Cassia '25, "Healing Through Collective Memory: Exploring Psychological Trauma and Community in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of the Erotic”" (2025). Student Research. 632, Scholarly and Creative Work from DePauw University.
https://scholarship.depauw.edu/studentresearchother/632
Comments
Prepared as part of Dr. Karin Wimbley's ENG 451 Seminar in Literature (1900-present).