Reframing Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Post-Traumatic Growth Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32350/llr.122.01%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Keywords:
African Americans, interdisciplinary, Morrison, post-traumatic growth, traumaAbstract
Whether traumatic experience reduces the African American subjectivity to a diminished and passive state or enables it to rejuvenate hope and foster individual growth within the segregated and oppressive sociopolitical milieu of slavery-era America is the central issue that this study investigates in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Drawing upon postulates of Post-traumatic Growth Theory, an interdisciplinary framework that combines literary studies and positive psychology. This study explores how traumatic experiences enable the African American characters in the novel to cultivate a greater appreciation of life, seek positive relationships with others, discover new possibilities, strive for personal growth, and develop a deeper sense of spirituality. By reframing trauma, this study finds that the characters endure trauma and dehumanization, yet their precarious circumstances stimulate them to make independent choices, overcome obstacles, pursue self-actualization, and grow as individuals who aspire to a better future. The significance of this research lies in its capacity to illuminate the therapeutic effects of confronting trauma in general, and to highlight African Americans’ struggle, their survival and their individual and collective renewal of hope in particular
Downloads
References
Austine, H. (2007). The persistence of memory: Slavery and trauma in Toni Morrison's Beloved [Master's thesis, Florida International University]. FIU Digital Commons. https://doi.org/10.25148/etd.FI14032372
Bakhyaseema, K. P. (2023). An ordeal of suffering in Toni Morison's Beloved. ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts, 4(1), 1314–1316. https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v4.i1.2023.3421
Bray, P. (2010). A broader framework for exploring the influence of spiritual experience in the wake of stressful life events: Examining connections between posttraumatic growth and psycho-spiritual transformation. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 13(3), 293–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/13674670903367199.
Bray, P. (2013). Bereavement and transformation: A psycho-spiritual and post-traumatic growth perspective. Journal of Religion and Health, 52(3), 890–903. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-011-9539-8.
Calhoun, L. G., & Tedeschi, R. G. (2004). Authors' response: The foundations of posttraumatic growth: New considerations. Psychological Inquiry, 15(1), 93–102. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1501_03
Caruth, C. (Ed.). (1995). Trauma: Explorations in memory. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Chin, D., Smith-Clapham, A. M., & Wyatt, G. E. (2023). Race-based trauma and post-traumatic growth through identity transformation. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, Article e1031602. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1031602
Collier, L. (2016, November). Growth after trauma. Monitor on Psychology, 47(10), 48. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma
Freud, S. (2020). A general introduction to psychoanalysis (G. S. Hall, Trans.). Outlook Verlag. (Original work published 1920).
Gibson, C. L. (2025). The duality of Toni Morrison's Beloved: Postmodern religious symbols that highlight the inherited legacy of the American South. Religions, 16(2), Article e171. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020171
Goodman, J. H. (2004). Coping with trauma and hardship among unaccompanied refugee youths from Sudan. Qualitative Health Research, 14(9), 1177–1196. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732304265923
He, L., Liu, J., Sun, R., Tan, Y., Qiu, L., & Chen, S. (2026). The effect of Snyder's hope theory-based psychological intervention on post-traumatic growth in Chinese women experiencing perinatal loss: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 47(1), Article 2650195. https://doi.org/10.1080/0167482X.2026.2650195
Joseph, S., & Linley, P. A. (2008). Positive psychological perspectives on posttraumatic stress: An integrative psychosocial framework. In S. Joseph & P. A. Linley (Eds.), Trauma, recovery, and growth: Positive psychological perspectives on posttraumatic stress (pp. 1–20). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118269718.ch1
Khursheed, M., & Shahnawaz, M. G. (2020). Trauma and post-traumatic growth: Spirituality and self-compassion as mediators among parents who lost their young children in a protracted conflict. Journal of Religion and Health, 59(5), 2623–2637. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-00980-2
Lu, Y., & Zhang, Z. (2023). On Sethe's trauma and recovery in Beloved from the perspective of trauma theory. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 8(1), 194–200. https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.81.23
Mayank, K. A. (2023). Echoes of historical trauma: An analysis of Beloved and The God of Small Things. International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 8(5), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.22161/ijels.85.24
Morrison, T. (2007). Beloved. Vintage Books. (Original work published 1987)
Mushonga, D. R., Rasheem, S., & Anderson, D. (2021). And still I rise: Resilience factors contributing to posttraumatic growth in African American women. Journal of Black Psychology, 47(2–3), 151–176. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798420979805
Santos, J. de P. (2018). The representation of rituals in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Community, resistance, empowerment. Scripta Uniandrade, 16(2), 314–329. https://doi.org/10.5935/1679-5520.20180039.
Selfridge, J. (2018). Beloved: The physical embodiment of psychological trauma. Midwest Journal of Undergraduate Research, 9, 68–83. https://research.monm.edu/mjur/mjur-2018-issue/
Tandon, N. (2019). Toni Morrison’s Beloved—demonstration of mother daughter relationship. International Journal of Research in English, 1(1), 30–33. https://doi.org/10.33545/26648717.2019.v1.i1a.81.
Taylor, S. (2015, December 7). How to suffer successfully: Post-traumatic growth and Nietzschean resilience. Wake Up World. https://wakeup-world.com/2015/12/07/how-to-suffer-successfully-post-traumatic-growth-and-nietzschean-resilience/
Tedeschi, R. G. (2023). The post-traumatic growth approach to psychological trauma. World Psychiatry, 22(2), 328–329. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21093
Tedeschi, R. G., Shakespeare-Finch, J., Taku, K., & Calhoun, L. G. (2018). Posttraumatic growth: Theory, research, and applications. Routledge.
Wang, L. (2022, December 17–18). A study of trauma metaphor in Morrison’s novels [Paper presentation]. Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Education, Language, Art and Inter-cultural Communication, Moscow, Russia.
Woodward, C., & Joseph, S. (2003). Positive change processes and post-traumatic growth in people who have experienced childhood abuse: Understanding vehicles of change. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 76(3), 267–283. https://doi.org/10.1348/147608303322362497
Xiong, H., Chen, L., Gu, Q., Tian, X., Zhou, L., Huang, Y., & Xiao, W. (2026). Post-traumatic growth among young and middle-aged family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer in China: A theory-guided thematic analysis using the ABC-X model. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 81, Article e103174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2026.103174
Yang, Y. (2023). The trauma and fragmentation narrative in Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife and Toni Morrison's Beloved. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10, Article e553. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02046-6
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Muhammad Afzal Khan Janjua
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.
