Between Silence and Survival: Narrating Trauma in Tayari Jones’ An American Marriage

Abstract

Tayari Jones is an acclaimed African American writer known for her emotionally resonant novels that explore themes of love, identity, and injustice. Her novel An American Marriage presents the story of Roy and Celestial, a young married couple whose relationship is tested by wrongful incarceration. Set in the contemporary American South, the novel captures the emotional and psychological consequences of trauma through a shifting narrative structure. This paper is titled Between Silence and Survival: Narrating Trauma in Tayari Jones’s An American Marriage. The novel portrays how trauma disrupts memory, identity, and emotional connection. Using concepts from trauma theory, this paper examines how the characters cope with personal and relational disintegration. It highlights how narrative voice, silence, and fragmented memory function as literary tools to reflect post-traumatic
experiences.