This Is Not A Story To Pass On: Examining the Psychic Legacies of Intergenerational Trauma Through Black Women's Literature

Abstract

The primary motivation of this thesis is to aid clinicians and academics in identifying the effects of intergenerational trauma upon the Black family system and in developing interdisciplinary and innovative research strategies and clinical interventions which specifically allow Black populations to uncover the roots of their own traumatic cycles. Dually, this thesis investigates the methods through which past/present contemporary social and political institutions of enslavement and incarceration facilitate unspeakable harm onto Black families within the United States, with specific attention to the means through which trauma generated by these institutions (often understood through the various acts, beliefs, and attitudes adopted by Black families over time as a means of survival) is passed on through subsequent generations and reified within familial structures. I understand these traumas and the subsequent reification process as catalysts for self-sustaining traumatic cycles which enact significant harm and distress individually, collectively, economically, and interpersonally. Through the lens of Black women’s literature, this thesis highlights the phenomenon of intergenerational trauma by examining two literary/historical narratives, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” by Harriet Jacobs and “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” by Jesmyn Ward.