To Remember or Not to Remember: Traumatic Memory and the Legacy of Slavery in Octavia E. Butler s Kindred and Toni Morrison s Beloved

Abstract

Toni Morrison s Beloved and Octavia Butler s Kindred share many thematic and stylistic conventions which illustrate intertextual connections between the neo-slave narrative and critical dystopias. Moreover, they both focus on the effect of history on the present and the continuing legacy of slavery on social ties, identity and agency. As the article argues, central themes of traumatic history and memory are problematized in these novels through the trope of maternal genealogy and the conse-quences its severance has on affective relationships, race relations and personal identity. Varsam contends that the violent legacy of slavery is transformed from a central marker of traumatic memory to a reference point of survival and personal and social renewal.