J. Brooks Bouson is Associate Professor of English at Loyola University in Chicago. She is the author of The Empathic Reader: A Study of the Narcissistic Character and the Drama of the Self and Brutal Choreographies: Oppositional Strategies and Narrative Design in the Novels of Margaret Atwood.

"I like the insightful and unforced way in which the concepts of shame and trauma are applied to the texts. The book is extremely well researched and informative, both in the discussion of shame and trauma and in the discussion of race matters and the secondary criticism on Morrison's work. Both literary scholars and psychologists should find it of great interest." — Joseph Adamson, coeditor of Scenes of Shame: Psychoanalysis, Shame, and Writing"This book is marked by its lucidity; its command of the psychological theories of shame and trauma; its careful, informed readings of Morrison's texts; and its generally persuasive argument about the importance of shame and trauma to an understanding of Morrison's work." — Barbara Schapiro, author of Literature and the Relational Self

• Preface 1. "Speaking the Unspeakable": Shame, Trauma, and Morrison's Fiction 2. "The Devastation That Even Casual Racial Contempt Can Cause": Chronic Shame, Traumatic Abuse, and Racial Self-Loathing in The Bluest Eye 3. "I Like My Own Dirt": Disinterested Violence and Shamelessness in Sula 4. "Can't Nobody Fly with All That Shit": The Shame-Pride Axis and Black Masculinity in Song of Solomon 5. "Defecating Over a Whole People": The Politics of Shame and the Failure of Love in Tar Baby 6. "Whites Might Dirty Her All Right, but Not Her Best Thing": The Dirtied and Traumatized Self of Slavery in Beloved 7. "The Dirty, Get-on-Down Music": City Pride, Shame, and Violence in Jazz 8. "He's Bringing Along the Dung We Leaving Behind": The Intergenerational Transmission of Racial Shame and Trauma in Paradise Notes Works Cited Index

J. Brooks Bouson is Associate Professor of English at Loyola University in Chicago. She is the author of The Empathic Reader: A Study of the Narcissistic Character and the Drama of the Self and Brutal Choreographies: Oppositional Strategies and Narrative Design in the Novels of Margaret Atwood.

"I like the insightful and unforced way in which the concepts of shame and trauma are applied to the texts. The book is extremely well researched and informative, both in the discussion of shame and trauma and in the discussion of race matters and the secondary criticism on Morrison's work. Both literary scholars and psychologists should find it of great interest." — Joseph Adamson, coeditor of Scenes of Shame: Psychoanalysis, Shame, and Writing"This book is marked by its lucidity; its command of the psychological theories of shame and trauma; its careful, informed readings of Morrison's texts; and its generally persuasive argument about the importance of shame and trauma to an understanding of Morrison's work." — Barbara Schapiro, author of Literature and the Relational Self

• Preface 1. "Speaking the Unspeakable": Shame, Trauma, and Morrison's Fiction 2. "The Devastation That Even Casual Racial Contempt Can Cause": Chronic Shame, Traumatic Abuse, and Racial Self-Loathing in The Bluest Eye 3. "I Like My Own Dirt": Disinterested Violence and Shamelessness in Sula 4. "Can't Nobody Fly with All That Shit": The Shame-Pride Axis and Black Masculinity in Song of Solomon 5. "Defecating Over a Whole People": The Politics of Shame and the Failure of Love in Tar Baby 6. "Whites Might Dirty Her All Right, but Not Her Best Thing": The Dirtied and Traumatized Self of Slavery in Beloved 7. "The Dirty, Get-on-Down Music": City Pride, Shame, and Violence in Jazz 8. "He's Bringing Along the Dung We Leaving Behind": The Intergenerational Transmission of Racial Shame and Trauma in Paradise Notes Works Cited Index

J. Brooks Bouson is Associate Professor of English at Loyola University in Chicago. She is the author of The Empathic Reader: A Study of the Narcissistic Character and the Drama of the Self and Brutal Choreographies: Oppositional Strategies and Narrative Design in the Novels of Margaret Atwood.

"I like the insightful and unforced way in which the concepts of shame and trauma are applied to the texts. The book is extremely well researched and informative, both in the discussion of shame and trauma and in the discussion of race matters and the secondary criticism on Morrison's work. Both literary scholars and psychologists should find it of great interest." — Joseph Adamson, coeditor of Scenes of Shame: Psychoanalysis, Shame, and Writing"This book is marked by its lucidity; its command of the psychological theories of shame and trauma; its careful, informed readings of Morrison's texts; and its generally persuasive argument about the importance of shame and trauma to an understanding of Morrison's work." — Barbara Schapiro, author of Literature and the Relational Self

• Preface 1. "Speaking the Unspeakable": Shame, Trauma, and Morrison's Fiction 2. "The Devastation That Even Casual Racial Contempt Can Cause": Chronic Shame, Traumatic Abuse, and Racial Self-Loathing in The Bluest Eye 3. "I Like My Own Dirt": Disinterested Violence and Shamelessness in Sula 4. "Can't Nobody Fly with All That Shit": The Shame-Pride Axis and Black Masculinity in Song of Solomon 5. "Defecating Over a Whole People": The Politics of Shame and the Failure of Love in Tar Baby 6. "Whites Might Dirty Her All Right, but Not Her Best Thing": The Dirtied and Traumatized Self of Slavery in Beloved 7. "The Dirty, Get-on-Down Music": City Pride, Shame, and Violence in Jazz 8. "He's Bringing Along the Dung We Leaving Behind": The Intergenerational Transmission of Racial Shame and Trauma in Paradise Notes Works Cited Index