THE AFTERMATH OF WAR: TRAUMA, IDENTITY, AND COMMUNITY IN TONI MORRISON'S BELOVED

The paper examines the overlapping areas of warfare and trauma in Toni Morrison& Beloved in detail, showing how the text inscribes the lasting damage of slavery and its resonance for individuals and collectively. While this text is not a war narrative in the traditional sense, it continues to recount the violence of plantation culture and its resonance. The protagonist, Sethe, is this phenomenon personified: she carries the presence of her dead child, and in that way shows the severity of violence drawing on the possible marrow of memory and identity. This analysis argues that ultimately Morrison& story indicts the protracted violence of slavery and militarized memory, recording the excessive debts owed the human body by war& personal and collective bodies, formal and informal.