Carceral Memories: Reading Toni Morrison’s Beloved through the Lens of Emerging Humanities

Abstract

As interdisciplinary approaches gain traction within English studies, emerging branches of the humanities have introduced innovative critical frameworks, notably carceral humanities, which are increasingly recognized as a significant lens for examining systems of incarceration, racialized violence, and institutional oppression. This paper positions Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a seminal literary work within this discourse, analyzing how the novel redefines traditional understandings of confinement by depicting enslavement, memory, and trauma as forms of carceral states that endure beyond physical imprisonment. Morrison’s narrative transcends the confines of literal incarceration, transforming domestic spaces and the haunted psyche into metaphorical sites of confinement where  the remnants of systemic brutality persist. The character of Sethe exemplifies the embodied repercussions of slavery’s violence, illustrating how history engenders incarceration through generational trauma and muted memories. By exploring these interconnections, this study asserts that Beloved illustrates literature’s potential to serve both as a testament and a form of resistance.
Therefore, carceral humanities emerges not merely as a nascent subfield but as an ethical practice that compels English studies to confront structures of social exclusion and historical amnesia. Through engagement with Morrison’s spectral narrative, this paper contends that English literature can function as an insurgent archive, illuminating marginalized voices and reframing literary analysis through the dual lenses of justice and remembrance. This perspective enforces a critical obligation: English studies must not only interpret textual works but also interrogate the systems they reflect and resist.