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چکیده
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The twentieth century attracted the attention of numerous American writers and critics, from various socio-cultural backgrounds to the prominence of psychological trauma and its effects in the literature. As a result, many different literary works have emerged to describe historical occurrences and highlight the dreadful past that has plagued many African Americans. Toni Morrison (1689- 1761) is one of the most notable writers of this century who reflected the psychological trauma in her works by portraying slaves who are fighting for an independent entity equal to whites. This study mainly attempts to provide a critical reading of the Noble prize-winning Toni Morrison's classic novel, Beloved (1987). The research begins by introducing the life experience and literary career of Toni Morrison, and the situation in which she created Beloved. Later, by means of close textual analysis, it identifies different literary techniques employed by the author to portray the traumatic and haunting nature of the past experiences that African Americans went through after the American Civil War (1861-1865). And then, in the light of the psychoanalytic approach, it discusses the life and experience of the novel’s main characters and their quest for survival during the reconstruction era in 1873. To conclude, the character's psyche's irreparable damage caused by slavery as well as their deep psychological trauma and mental health status is identified through repeated allusions to the characters' pasts and the way they deny, repress or confront their traumatic memories.
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