Volume IV Special Issue V June 2024

Name of Author : Kritanjali Konwar

Title of the paper : Representation of the African American Folk Rituals of Healing in Toni Morrisons Beloved

Abstract: Toni Morrison as a writer follows African American literary tradition by combining the symbolic virtues of modernism, the politics of the Black Aesthetic and a rich lyricism. Black aesthetics emphasizes on generating the cultural consciousness of the black people through artistic representation of their traditional elements. Despite Morrisons personal differences regarding some of the ideologies of black aesthetics, she is found to relate with the sentiments of it by representing African American traditional values in the form of folk culture in her works. Morrison deftly represents African American folk culture in her novels by using precise, richly textured prose and compelling characters. This paper is an attempt to explore these distinctive features of Morrisons incorporation of folk culture that situates and distinguishes her within the tradition of folk based African American literature with special reference to the representation of folk healing practices in her novel Beloved.

Keywords : Folk Culture, Healing, African American Cosmology, Living Dead, Rememory, Trauma

DOI :

Page Number : 38-43