The Keloids We Heal

by Sarah Soanirina Ohmer

ISBN: 9780252088544

Published: 2025-05-13

The corporeal and spiritual healing in literature by women of colors can be seen to redefine modern thought and printed text. Sarah Soanirina Ohmer traces the impact of colonization and enslavement on Black women and Black women's contributions to colonial, nineteenth, and twentieth century literature in the US, Brazil, and West Indies. Her analysis unlocks the literature's power to heal through gut-wrenching descriptions of wounds and thrilling passages of hope and liberation. Drawing on intersectional analysis, Ohmer focuses on portrayals of trauma and spirituality in works by Toni Morrison, Conceição Evaristo, Maryse Condé, Gloria Anzaldúa, the Quilombhoje poets, and María de los Reyes Castillo. Ohmer compares literature from different countries along four thematic pathways: ghosts, mirrors, naming, and motherhood. Her analysis unlocks the literature's power to heal through gut-wrenching descriptions of wounds and thrilling passages of hope and liberation. Throughout, Ohmer...