Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's <i>Beloved</i> (1987)

Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)

Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 1, Issue 3)

Received: 25 July 2016 Accepted: 18 August 2016 Published: 7 September 2016

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Abstract

African American writers’ preoccupation with supernatural elements such as ghosts stems not from an interest in Gothic themes, but in a new genre in American literature termed as "the story of cultural haunting.” The objective of this paper is to discuss Morrison’s choice of a ghost to play the part of connecting past with the present in her novel, Beloved (1987). In discussing this role, the paper examines Morrison’s use of the magic realism and the ghost’s relationship with the other characters, such as Sethe, Denver and Paul D, as well as its relationship with the African American community. The paper also points out how the ghost’s impact on these characters has been achieved on both personal and collective levels. To be more specific, the paper argues how Beloved’s ghost is deeply symbolizing both private and collective past, which matches Morrison’s notion about the past. Finally, the paper examines the ghost’s cultural role of healing African Americans from the trauma of slavery.

Published in	English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 1, Issue 3)
DOI	10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11
Page(s)	13-20
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Toni Morrison, Beloved, African Americans, Ghosts, Slavery, Cultural Haunting

References

[1]	Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann (ed.). The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003. Print.
[2]	Bani Younes, Moayad. History, Identity, Trauma and Narratives in Toni Morrison's Beloved in relation to “Black Lives Matter” (BLM). MA Thesis. Södertörn Univesity / School of Culture and Communication, 2016. Print.
[3]	Brogan, Kathleen. Cultural Haunting: Ghosts and Ethnicity in Recent American Literature. Charlottesville, PA: University Press of Virginia, 1998.174. Print.
[4]	“American Stories of Cultural Haunting: Tales of Heirs and Ethnographer.” College English. Vol. 57, No. 2 (Feb., 1995), pp. 149-165. National Council of Teachers of English. DOI: 10.2307/378807. Retireved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/378807.
[5]	Darling, Marsha. "In the Realm of Responsibility: A Conversation with Toni Morrison." 1978. In Taylor-Guthrie, Danille, ed. Conversations With Toni Morrison. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1994. 246-54. Print.
[6]	Derrida, Jacques. Specters of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning & the New International. New York: Routledge, 1994. Print.
[7]	Gordon, Avery F. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. Print.
[8]	Lucie, Armitt Contemporary Women’s Fiction and the Fantastic. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000. Print.
[9]	Mori, Aoi. The Womanist and Toni Morrison: The Reversionary Recovery of Archetypal Mothers and Their Stories. Thesis (Ph. D.) State U Of NY At Buffalo, 1994. Print.
[10]	Morrison, Toni. Beloved. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.
[11]	"Behind the Making of the Black Book." Black World (Feb. 1974): 86-90. Print.
[12]	‘Living Memory’: Toni Morrison talks to Paul Gilroy." City Limits (March 31-April 7, 1988): 26-27. Print.
[13]	Rice, Alan. Creating Memorials Building Identities, The Politics of Memory in the Black Atlantic. Liverpool:, Liverpool University Press, 2010. Print.
[14]	Scarborough, Dorothy. “Modern Ghosts.” Peter B. Messent (ed.). Literature of the Occult. Prentice-Hall, Inc, Englewood Cliffs, N. J, 1981.105-116. Print.
[15]	Sharpe, Jenny. Ghosts of Slavery: A Literary Archaeology of Black Women's Lives. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. Print.
[16]	Upadhyay, Purva. “The Concept of Nostalgia in Toni Morrison’s Beloved.” International Journal of English Language, Literature and Humanities, IJELLH, Volume IV, Issue III, March 2016. Print.
[17]	Watkins, Mel. “Talk with Toni Morrison.” In Taylor-Guthrie (ed.). Conversations with Toni Morrison. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994. 43-47. Print.

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Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. (2016). Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). English Language, Literature & Culture, 1(3), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2016, 1(3), 13-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2016;1(3):13-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11,
  author = {Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab},
  title = {Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {1},
  number = {3},
  pages = {13-20},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20160103.11},
  abstract = {African American writers’ preoccupation with supernatural elements such as ghosts stems not from an interest in Gothic themes, but in a new genre in American literature termed as "the story of cultural haunting.” The objective of this paper is to discuss Morrison’s choice of a ghost to play the part of connecting past with the present in her novel, Beloved (1987). In discussing this role, the paper examines Morrison’s use of the magic realism and the ghost’s relationship with the other characters, such as Sethe, Denver and Paul D, as well as its relationship with the African American community. The paper also points out how the ghost’s impact on these characters has been achieved on both personal and collective levels. To be more specific, the paper argues how Beloved’s ghost is deeply symbolizing both private and collective past, which matches Morrison’s notion about the past. Finally, the paper examines the ghost’s cultural role of healing African Americans from the trauma of slavery.},
 year = {2016}
}

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TY  - JOUR
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Author Information

Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab

Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Minia University, Minia, Egypt

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Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. (2016). Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). English Language, Literature & Culture, 1(3), 13-20. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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ACS Style

Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2016, 1(3), 13-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

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AMA Style

Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab. Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987). Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2016;1(3):13-20. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11,
  author = {Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab},
  title = {Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {1},
  number = {3},
  pages = {13-20},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20160103.11},
  abstract = {African American writers’ preoccupation with supernatural elements such as ghosts stems not from an interest in Gothic themes, but in a new genre in American literature termed as "the story of cultural haunting.” The objective of this paper is to discuss Morrison’s choice of a ghost to play the part of connecting past with the present in her novel, Beloved (1987). In discussing this role, the paper examines Morrison’s use of the magic realism and the ghost’s relationship with the other characters, such as Sethe, Denver and Paul D, as well as its relationship with the African American community. The paper also points out how the ghost’s impact on these characters has been achieved on both personal and collective levels. To be more specific, the paper argues how Beloved’s ghost is deeply symbolizing both private and collective past, which matches Morrison’s notion about the past. Finally, the paper examines the ghost’s cultural role of healing African Americans from the trauma of slavery.},
 year = {2016}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Cultural Hauntings in Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987)
AU  - Mohammad Shaaban Ahmad Deyab
Y1  - 2016/09/07
PY  - 2016
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 13
EP  - 20
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20160103.11
AB  - African American writers’ preoccupation with supernatural elements such as ghosts stems not from an interest in Gothic themes, but in a new genre in American literature termed as "the story of cultural haunting.” The objective of this paper is to discuss Morrison’s choice of a ghost to play the part of connecting past with the present in her novel, Beloved (1987). In discussing this role, the paper examines Morrison’s use of the magic realism and the ghost’s relationship with the other characters, such as Sethe, Denver and Paul D, as well as its relationship with the African American community. The paper also points out how the ghost’s impact on these characters has been achieved on both personal and collective levels. To be more specific, the paper argues how Beloved’s ghost is deeply symbolizing both private and collective past, which matches Morrison’s notion about the past. Finally, the paper examines the ghost’s cultural role of healing African Americans from the trauma of slavery.
VL  - 1
IS  - 3
ER  -

Copy | Download