Hebdomadal 9

To build off Beth's lovely lecture this morning, I wanted to invite you to consider her last two questions in some depth.

Topic 1: Storytelling, bodies, and (re)memory

Develop a sophisticated, clear reading of Beloved that builds off Beth's claim that Morrison sees the process of recovering memory and history as inherently bodily.

There are a number of sub-questions you might want to consider here:

• What is rememory and how does it differ from simple memory?
• How are bodies like history?
• How do bodies and (re)memories help both individuals and nations work through the problems of history?
• You might also want to think in broader terms about why postmodernism embodies history?

Topic 2: Re-/dis-membering the community

Beth hinted that the piecing-together of Sethe's body is, in some way, iterated in the piecing-together of the community. How is the community like the body in Beloved? What do we learn about national attempts to cope with slavery from the dissolution and reconstitution of the community?

This morning Beth looked specifically at the scene of Baby Suggs in the Clearing (page 98 or 93 depending on your edition), but you should go on to look at the banquet scene (page 142 in my edition) or the first chapter of the third section (the relevant part begins on page 269 of my edition).