Trauma And Healing: A Study Of Hysteria In Toni Morrison's Beloved From Psychoanalysis Perspective

Toni Morrison is one of the greatest figures in the field of contemporary American literature. In 1993, she became the first African American Nobel Prize laureate in literature, for her description "in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import", which "gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."Beloved, her fifth novel, published in 1987, attracts much attention of the public and is viewed as her best novel. Since its publication, Beloved has attracted so many readers and critics. This paper is intended for the study of hysteria from three aspects: the aetiology, the symptom and the healing of hysteria, in order to dig out the trauma of these characters originated from the inhuman slavery. Based on close reading and reasonable analysis of the characters' psychology, this paper is in resonance with one aspect of Toni Morrison's writing themes: based on a true account of event, objectively reconstruct the absent history to serve for a historical text for those to confront the cruel reality, liberate their souls and seek a lost self.The first part is a general introduction to Toni Morrison, including her position in the literary field, the plot, the source, and the literary reviews of Beloved; the origin of Morrison's writing and the motivation of this paper; and the relevant theory about hysteria.The second part deals with the aetiology of hysteria in Sethe. According to Freud's theory of sexual trauma in childhood and the theory of multiple "provoking agents", this part analyzes Sethe's childhood memories about her mother's mark pain and sexual trauma and her Sweet Home horrendous experiences, which are viewed as the essential "provoking agents" of her aetiology. At the same time, the writer holds that Sethe's...