Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Dagbovie-Mullins, Sika

Abstract

“Psychoanalysis and Dreams in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: Exploring Continuities and Ruptures of Trauma Cycles,” explores the function of dreams as they relate to trauma and memory. This thesis argues that a character’s engagement with their dreams leads to a healing discontinuity of traumatic cycles, while dreams left untouched likely result in historical and transgenerational cycles and the continuation of personal trauma and its symptoms. This thesis compares the dreams of the characters Beloved and Denver. In part because Morrison notes her influence from both African and Western traditions, this paper argues that a sufficient understanding of dreams in her work requires a multiplicity of approaches. This thesis draws on a plurality of ideas from African and Western perspectives of dreams, the intersections of race and psychoanalysis, and trauma theory. The focus on dreams extends the arguments of critics who analyze trauma in Beloved more generally.

Extent

61 p.

Comments

Includes bibliography.|Thesis (MA)--Florida Atlantic University, 2022.|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Includes bibliography.

Identifier

FA00013909

Format

pdf

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