Cultural Trauma of Slavery: Reflections in Literature and Cinema

Abstract

This paper seeks to reflect on the representation of the North American slavery system in literature and cinema. Even at the time of the system's validity, slave narratives emerge as a way of disclosing the individual stories of slaves, as well as of building a collective identity that would come to be called African-American. However, shortly after the abolition of slavery, such narratives disappear. It is interesting here to understand the trajectory of the representation of the Afro-American after this period, contemplated from the perspective of cultural trauma. We use as a guiding line 12 Years of Slavery, from the time of production of the book, until the release of the film. We are based on authors such as Kellner (2001), Eyerman (2001; 2011) and Gates Jr. (2014), among others.