SE Academic Review 2023

2 ST EDWARD’S, OXFORD

1 .

The legacy of slavery in Beloved and Jazz by Toni Morrison Research Question: How does the legacy of slavery impact personal relationships in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Jazz ? By Niamh Brown

Introduction

The novels Beloved and Jazz by Toni Morrison challenge the conventional narrative of slavery. Told from the perspective of black women, Morrison gives a voice to those who were the most marginalised and silenced in society, providing an alternative perspective of the horrors and impacts of slavery. By illustrating how the legacy of slavery impacts on personal relationships, Morrison also presents an alternative perspective to larger scale historical accounts, forming part of the author’s wider project of incorporating African-American history into mainstream American history and literature.

immediate aftermath of slavery and the impacts two generations on, giving the reader a broader understanding of the legacy of slavery. This question is worthy of investigation because, whilst dealing with issues surrounding slavery, which was abolished more than 150 years ago, Morrison’s work still draws parallels with issues in today’s society such as human trafficking. With 40.3 million victims globally (National Human Trafficking Hotline, 2016), the concern of slavery in the 21st century is still pressing. As slavery is still ongoing it makes the investigation into how Morrison portrays its impact on relationships even more compelling as the

Beloved , set in 1873, centres on Sethe – a woman who murders her own child to save her from the horrors of slavery. The novel’s non-chronological structure and changing narrative voice assists the reader in understanding the direct trauma that slavery has caused and provides the reader with an insight into the individual lives of those in slavery, enabling the reader to understand why and how slavery impacted relationships. By contrast, Jazz takes place in 1920s Harlem; not only does the setting of Jazz contrast greatly with Beloved , but the time period in which it takes place also provides a different perspective on how slavery impacts relationships. In these novels, Morrison presents the