Possession, Displacement and the Uncanny : The Haunting Past of Slavery in Toni Morrison's Beloved

• Main Author: Forsberg, Carrie
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora 2018
• Subjects: Beloved; psychoanalysis; personification; possession; displacement; uncanny; Humanities and the Arts; Humaniora och konst
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-29157

This paper adopts a psychoanalytical approach to Toni Morrison’s Beloved by focusing on the significance of 124 Bluestone Road and the entity Beloved, as both a character and a source of displacement for the other characters as a result of the traumatic events that plagued them throughout the novel. In order to accomplish this, a close reading of passages dealing with this location’s haunting and the manifestation of Beloved as the flesh and blood spirit will be used to discuss the meaning behind the metaphor. Furthermore, certain psychological and literary terms will be utilized in the course of this analysis including: personification, repression, possession, metaphor, displacement and the uncanny in order to attempt to answer the question about how the author used these devices to narrate the trauma of the characters Sethe, Denver and Paul D, giving merit to their symbolic struggle with the trauma of their past and its negative impact on their identities.