Name: LIDIELE BATISTA NOGUEIRA
Publication date: 25/06/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| LUIZ MANOEL DA SILVA OLIVEIRA | Examinador Externo |
| ROBERTO FERREIRA JUNIOR | Presidente |
| VITOR CEI SANTOS | Examinador Interno |
Summary: This research aims to analyze Beloved (2007), by Toni Morrison, from the
perspective of neo-slave narratives, discussing how the author employs elements
such as memory, trauma, and spectrality to critically revisit the North American slave
past. Based on the studies of Bernard W. Bell (1987) and Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
(1999), neo-slave narratives are understood as contemporary works that revisit the
tradition of slave narratives while simultaneously reworking their structures and
themes through new historical, social, and political perspectives. The research
discusses how Morrison transforms the memory of slavery into a central element of
the narrative, demonstrating that the trauma of slavery transcends the individual
dimension of the characters and is also inscribed in the collective memory of the
Black population. In addition, the dissertation investigates the construction of the
Gothic in Beloved, especially through the house 124 and the spectral figure of
Beloved. Drawing on the studies of Homi K. Bhabha, Anthony Vidler, and Avery
Gordon, the dissertation demonstrates that Morrison shifts the ghost from the realm
of the supernatural to that of racial historical violence, constructing a spectrality
linked to the persistence of slavery and the historical erasure of the Black population.
KEYWORDS: Black women’s literature; Neo-slave Narratives; the Gothic; Toni
Morrison; Beloved.
