Analyze our current tortured cultural and political moment through the lenses of history, psychoanalytic theory, and literature. We’ll explore the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison, along with excerpts from the writings of 21st-century novelist Jesmyn Ward and the work of 21st-century psychoanalyst Dionne Powell. Their insights will help us better understand both the forces behind the current wave of book banning and censorship—and the dangers these impulses pose if they remain unexamined. The title inverts psychoanalyst Hans Loewald’s phrase “When Ghosts Become Ancestors,” asking you to consider not the growth that comes with recognition and acknowledgment, but the damage done when painful history is refused or denied. Beloved is the required text; additional readings will be excerpted in class.