This study explores Toni Morrison’s Beloved through the theoretical lens of care and Black queer feminism. It aims to investigate how Black caregiving functions as a mode of survival and resistance for Black women within the legacy of slavery. Focusing on Sethe, the protagonist, this study conducts a close reading of her maternal actions as embodied responses to Black women’s trauma and social dehumanization. Drawing on theories of Eva Feder Kittay and Mikhail Bakhtin, this study develops the concepts of “dependency care” and “carnivalesque care” to highlight how care can be a transformative act. Reparative care and trauma-informed care are also incorporated into the analysis. These frameworks reveal how Black women’s relational practices challenge dominant ideals of autonomy, healing, and normative family structures. The study argues that Sethe’s fierce attachment to Beloved, her reincarnated daughter, demonstrates a radical form of queer relationality that exposes the structural violence embedded in normative maternal ideologies. Ultimately, Beloved articulates a powerful vision of freedom rooted not in individual autonomy but in interdependence, shared memory, and decolonized resistance. By foregrounding this potential, the novel reimagines Black women’s dignity and spiritual agency, demonstrating Morrison’s hope for the realization of authentic liberation.
Hyojeong Byun (Fri,) studied this question.