Moving Ever Forward: Reading the Significance of Motion and Space as a Representation of Trauma in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad

This thesis argues that three models of trauma theory, which include traditional
trauma theory, postcolonial trauma theory, and cultural trauma theory, must be joined to
fully understand the trauma experienced by African Americans within the novels Song of
Solomon by Toni Morrison and The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. By
implementing these three theories, we can see how each novel’s main character is
exploring and learning about African American trauma and better understand how an
adjustment of space and time creates the possibility for the implementation of trauma
theory.
Each novel presents a journey, and it is through this movement through space that
each character can serve as a witness to African American trauma. This is done in
Morrison’s text by condensing the geographical space of the American north and south into one town, which serves to pluralize African American culture. In Whitehead’s text,
American history is removed from its chronological place, which creates a duality that
instills Freud’s theory of the uncanny within both the character and the reader.