Cultural trauma and collective memory in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer: a “spiral signification” narrative

Ammar Abduh Aqeeli ()
Additional contact information
Ammar Abduh Aqeeli: Jazan University

Palgrave Communications, 2025, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract This article explores how Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer (2019) reshapes the narrative of slavery through the lens of cultural trauma, which extends beyond personal trauma. It aims to investigate how the physical and psychological trauma of enslavement and dehumanization is collective. In other words, the experiences of a multitude of individuals are aggregated to create a shared experience. Moreover, the article examines how the impact of trauma on both individuals and groups is not only immediate but also extendable to subsequent generations. The Water Dancer effectively portrays slavery as a collective trauma, the insidious legacy of which leaves a lasting stain on the lives of African Americans. The phenomenon of cultural trauma in The Water Dancer is illustrated through the revival of slavery’s memory as a collective experience. It provides African Americans with a positive basis for identity in a world that failed to fulfill its post-slavery promise to end their persistent disenfranchisement.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-025-04467-x Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palcom:v:12:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-025-04467-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/palcomms/about

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-025-04467-x

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Palgrave Communications from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().