English & American cultural studies (영미문화)
- Volume 16 Issue 2
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- Pages.29-45
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- 2016
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- 1598-5431(pISSN)
Beloved: Identity Recovery through Rememory
『빌러비드』: 재기억을 통한 정체성 회복
- Kim, Hyejin (Busan University of Foreign Studies)
- 김혜진 (부산외국어대학교)
- Received : 2016.05.01
- Accepted : 2016.05.23
- Published : 2016.05.31
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to research how the writer describes characters of the text who overcome traumatic experiences and restore their identity through rememory in Toni Morrison's Beloved. The writer, Morrison gives the female characters their voices to recover their ethnic identities. By breaking silence, they establish their identities and become Americans from "unspeakable thoughts" to "speaking subjects." The ex-slave Sethe and her daughter, Denver have experienced trauma which works from traces of memory and history after slavery was abolished. Sethe and Denver are isolated from the community at the 124 Bluestone Road. When Beloved, ghost who was killed by Sethe, appears, Sethe and Denver are wondering who she is. Rememorying in Beloved is the important form of narrative that Morrison uses to recover their trauma. Morrison emphasizes the need to reconcile with the community and the aid of community for Sethe and Denver to heal their truma. Thanks to Beloved who leads Sethe and Denver to the community, they can be finally one of the community members in America.