Summary In Octavia Butler's Kindred

On December 6, 2016, there were several English 489 students who presented their undergraduate research in the Foley classroom for faculty and students to witness their hard work. One of the presenters was Shauntell Whitehurst-Joyner who presented "If you told me a Story like This, I probably Wouldn't Believe It Either": The Dismissal of Slavery in Octavia Butler's Kindred. In order to enhance her argument that the book exhibited dismissal of slavery, she incorporated the trauma theory supported by Cathy Caruth, the concept of repetition compulsion supported by Sigmund Freud, and the concept of white guilt supported by James Baldwin. Whitehurst Joyner discussed how trauma theory originally came from the Greek definition of the womb referring …show more content…
Her PowerPoint presentation quoted Freud stating, "A transference of the forgotten past - on to all other aspects of the current situation- The greater the resistance, the more extensively will acting out the (repetition) replace remembering" (151). Once addressing that, it led her to the next concept of James Baldwin's white guilt. Quoting from the PowerPoint, Baldwin said, "The inability of people of the white race "to face their history, to change their lives" (410). Thus, as a whole connecting trauma theory, and the concepts of repetition compulsion and white guilt drew attention to Dana and Kevin repressing slavery. Dana was able to go back in time and experience slavery. However, according to Whitehurst-Joyner, Kevin was in denial about the situation even though the evidence was in his face when he saw his wife bloody and bruised up. But even so, Kevin got the message once he traveled back in time. From that point on, he came to grips that his wife was indeed traveling back time and he was able to acknowledge slavery and his white privilege. At the end of the presentation, Whitehurst-Joyner came to the conclusion that the African-American community may not be able to fully recover from that the catastrophic events from slavery and cannot go back in the past. Nonetheless, Caucasians need to acknowledge the past and accept they have a different experience than …show more content…
As an audience member, I got the clear understanding what the book was about without having to read the book myself. It was critical and satisfying that she explained each tool for the audience to get the bigger picture that everyone dismisses slavery. As she was speaking, the content of her work flowed together and made me want to improve how I explain theory. When I discuss theory it is on the surface and have a hard time making it flow into the understanding that it is a valuable tool that is applied in everyday life. I was not familiar with the trauma theory and white guilt but mentioning Freud in my opinion brought her argument together because I was familiar with the return of the