Rememorying Slavery: Intergenerational Memory and Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) and Conceição Evaristo’s Ponciá Vicêncio (2003)

Abstract

This paper looks at parallels in the articulation of memory and trauma between Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the more recent publication Ponciá Vicêncio, written in 2003 by the Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo. It examines the novels’ illustration of slavery trauma and the creative investment of descendants of slaves in re-presenting traumatic family history. With this concern, it proposes a comparative reading of Beloved and Ponciá Vicêncio, focusing, first, on their representations of the embodiment of trauma; second, on their respective concepts of rememory and memory-thoughts – or pensamentos-lembranças; and third, on the descendants’ engagement with the revision of narratives of family past, through the characters Denver and Ponciá.