Abstract: This essay examines how the African American writer magical realist novel Sing, Unburied, Sing elicits melancholic hope: hope that does not conceive of history as linearly progressive and is conscious of past casualties. In Ward’s novel, a Black mother is unable to face her brother’s ghost because of her trauma after his murder by a white supremacist. In contrast, the mother’s biracial children are able to form mutually beneficial relations with the ghosts who visit them. With this contrast, Ward leads readers to feel melancholic about the older generation while feeling hopeful for the younger generation. This work is valuable because, as Ward herself has implied, hope can inspire actions for progress.
Na Rim Kim (Sun,) studied this question.
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