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Shaping the Self: Lacanian Perspectives on Memory, Identity and Trauma in Morrison´s Fiction
University of Gävle, Faculty of Education and Business Studies, Department of Humanities.
2025 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

This thesis examines Toni Morrison´s Beloved and Song of Solomon through Lacanian psychoanalysis, trauma theory and neuroscience. Beloved centers on the Imaginary and the Real, using fragmented, sensory narratives to reflect unprocessed trauma. Song of Solomon, by contrast, engages the Symbolic, exploring identity formation langage, and collective memory. Drawing on Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra, the study highlights the difference between structural abscence and historical loss, aligning trauma theory. Neuroscientific perspectives on implicit memory and language offer further insight into how cognition shapes meaning and identity. Morrison´s work emergers as a symbolic act of collective remembrance and psychic negotiation, showing how literature, like psychoanalysis, mediates the unspeakable and the Real. Ultimately, the novels exemplify how the narrative can reveal trauma´s psychic and cultural residues, providing a multidimensional framework for understanding subjectivity. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025. , p. 30
Keywords [en]
Toni Morrison, Beloved, Song of Solomon, Jacques Lacan, trauma theory, memory, identity, neuroscience, psychoanalysis
National Category
Studies of Specific Literatures
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-46990OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hig-46990DiVA, id: diva2:1962489
Subject / course
English
Educational program
no programme (freestanding course)
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2025-06-03 Created: 2025-05-30 Last updated: 2025-10-02Bibliographically approved

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Studies of Specific Literatures

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CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • sv-SE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • de-DE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf