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BRUCE SIMO N TRAUMATIC REPETITIO N GAYL JONES' S CORREGIDORA Why th e compulsio n t o repea t th e massiv e stor y o f slaver y i n th e contemporar y Afro-America n novel , especially so long after the empirical event itself? . .. Contemporar y Afro-American writers who tell the story of slaver y ar e increasingl y aimin g fo r th e sam e thing: to repositio n th e stres s point s o f tha t stor y wit h a heavy accent on particular acts of agency within an oppressive and degrading system. — Deborah E. McDowell, "Negotiating between Tenses" [S]lavery haunt s the literary imaginatio n becaus e it s material conditions an d social relation s are frequently reproduced in fiction as historically dynamic; they continue to influence society long after emancipation.... In a formal sense slavery can thus be a most powerful "absent" presence. —Hazel Carby, "Ideologies of Black Folk" Is th e contemporar y compulsio n t o repea t th e hauntin g stor y o f slavery , a s Hazel Carb y woul d hav e it , testimon y t o th e past' s continuin g possessio n o f African-American writers , critics , an d theorists , i n th e for m o f a n "ideolog y o f the folk"? 1 O r i s i t a n attemp t t o maste r th e past , a s Debora h McDowel l suggests, t o recove r th e trace s o f agenc y erase d fro m o r misrepresente d b y th e dominant historica l record? 2 I s repetitio n compulsio n anothe r for m o f enslavement o r a mean s o f liberation ? O r i s i t completel y other ? Nowher e ar e thes e questions mor e urgentl y pose d tha n i n Gay l Jones's Corregidora, a chilling an d powerful historica l nove l o f slaver y tha t i s onl y beginnin g t o b e engage d wit h the necessar y critica l attentiveness. 3 I t i s m y contentio n i n thi s essa y tha t Corregidora is as much abou t th e structure o f traumatic experienc e a s it i s about 6 BRUCE SIMO N the afterlif e o f Brazilia n slaver y an d America n segregation . Bot h narrato r an d novel bear witness to New World histor y as a history of trauma . To pu t forwar d thes e claim s i s to rais e the followin g questions : What doe s i t mean fo r Ne w Worl d histor y t o b e a history o f trauma? 4 An d wha t i s at stak e when w e identif y catastrophi c events , rangin g fro m th e force d departur e fro m Africa t o the beating of Rodney King, as traumatic?5 It is to these questions tha t I now turn . TRAUMA AN D TH E LITERAR Y IMAGINATIO N To begi n wit h th e basics : Jones's nove l seem s t o spa n twenty-tw o year s o f th e life o f it s protagonis t an d narrator , Urs a Corregidora—startin g i n 194 7 whe n she i s twenty-five , shortl y befor e sh e leave s he r husband , Mutt , an d endin g i n 1969 whe n sh e decide s t o retur n t o him . Ye t Corregidora actually span s nin e decades and tw o continents—from pre-Emancipatio n Brazi l to post-segregatio n Kentucky. Th e nove l open s wit h a personal catastroph e fo r Ursa : sh e lose s he r unborn chil d an d th e capacit y t o bea r childre n afte r a fal l cause d b y he r possessive husband an d a hysterectomy b y possibly racis t doctors. This persona l catastrophe, however, i s intimately linked with a familial an d historica l catastro phe , fo r i n th e lat e nineteent h centur y th e Brazilia n slaveowne r...

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