To accomplish this approach, this thesis separates the analysis into two distinctly gendered sections: the first section unpacks the relationship between African-based spiritualism and female-centric conjure work in the family line, whereas the second section analyzes how trauma shapes black masculinity and how repression perpetuates transgenerational trauma. While this association is apparent in Ward’s novel, this thesis applies the aforementioned modes of scholarship alongside African-based spiritualism to investigate further the inclusion of ghosts. Often, these ghosts are symbolic of transgenerational trauma in fictional works. Trauma, and its subset transgenerational trauma, have often been a focal point for critical analysis of other African American texts that engage with ghosts and hauntings, such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). This thesis explores how ecocriticism and trauma theory intersect within Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) to tackle the complex act of collective healing.
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