Cultural Trauma and Cultural Identity : A Study of Pilate in Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon

• Main Author: Persson, Ulrika
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för humaniora (HUM) 2014
• Subjects: African-American; cultural trauma; cultural identity; identity formation; double consciousness; unhomeliness; the "Other"
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-24445

This essay is a study of the character Pilate in Toni Morrison’s novel Song of Solomon. It employs a postcolonial theoretical perspective in order to explore the cultural trauma that Pilate experiences in the aftermath of slavery. Furthermore, it analyses the impact of that trauma on the formation of Pilate’s own cultural identity. When defining cultural trauma and cultural identity, the works of Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Frantz Fanon are used. In this discussion, terms such as "double consciousness", "unhomeliness" and the "Other" are employed as a theoretical background to the analysis. Pilate’s trauma consists of being an orphan. Moreover, she is rejected as "Other" both by her brother as well as by each society that she settles into. Although suffering from this trauma and being all alone in the world, Pilate manages to both affirm her cultural heritage as well as to use it in a positive way when dealing with the trauma and creating her own cultural identity. In her case, she is able to stay close to her roots and to avoid the feeling of double-consciousness and unhomeliness. Instead she has a solid foundation in her ancestral past and the cultural identity it represents.