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Title Black Lives Matter Movement in Contemporary Afro-American Fiction: Re-Reading the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Author(s) Hafsah Tariq

Abstract This research is aimed at contributing to the discourse of Black Lives Matter movement by unveiling the impact of racial trauma experienced by African American people as a result of racial profiling, police brutality, and institutionalized racism through Joy DeGruy Leary’s theoretical framework of post traumatic slave syndrome. Post traumatic slave syndrome (PTSS) is a condition experienced by the African American population resulting from transgenerational racial trauma. This study explores the post traumatic slave syndrome experienced by African American people in the aftermath of police brutality through contemporary African American literature. My research is limited to two texts from YA fiction, namely Angie Thomas’ The Hate U Give and Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely’s All American Boys. While adopting the qualitative research paradigm, the data for this study has been scrutinized through Alan McKee’s research method of textual analysis. The data from the selected narratives has been anatomized in accordance with the three symptoms of post traumatic slave syndrome i.e. vacant esteem, ever-present anger and racist socialization. Due to considerable differences between the narratives of both of the novels, the conclusions derived from these texts have certain differences among them. As Thomas’ The Hate U Give has been narrated from the perspective of an African American girl Starr, the novel manifests the racial trauma experienced by Starr and other African American people associated with her as a result of an incident of police brutality. On the other hand, Reynolds and Kiely’s All American Boys substantiates the reaction of both African American and white American protagonists towards police brutality.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2023-01-03

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