Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
The “us versus them” narrative still pre-dominates the analysis of terrorism in the West, which invariably associates “them” with terrorism. Toni Morrison’s hauntingly memorable novel – Beloved – provides a radically different and historically grounded view of terror and terrorism in the West. The novel not only releases us from the “us versus them” paradigm by demonstrating America’s intimacy with terror, it also enables us to examine terror and terrorism from the perspective of a gendered and ethnic subject who subverts the easy categorization of “us” and “them” or civilized and terrorist. Following Jacques Derrida’s contemplations on death and terror, I contend that Morrison’s novel foregrounds autoimmunity, the gift of death and hospitality as key components in the experience of terror for a subject of colonialism and slavery.
Recommended Citation
Damai, Puspa. “Terror, Hospitality and the Gift of Death in Morrison’s Beloved.” Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry 1.1 (2014): 1-18.
Included in
American Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons
Comments
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