MEDIATED MEMORY AND TRANSMISSION OF TRAUMA IN WHITEHEAD’S THE NICKEL BOYS

Abstract

This article explores the intergenerational transmission of trauma in Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (2019), employing Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory to analyze how inherited legacies shape marginalized identities and cultural consciousness. Postmemory, as conceptualized by Hirsch, describes the relationship of the “generation after” to personal, collective, and cultural trauma—processing experiences they “remember” only through mediated stories, images, and behaviors. This study examines how Whitehead’s portrayal of systemic racial violence at the Nickel Academy—a fictional surrogate for the real-life Dozier School for Boys—reveals the enduring psychic scars and historical erasures within African American communities. By contrasting Elwood Curtis’s civil-rights-driven idealism with Turner’s cynical survivalist pragmatism, the article demonstrates how trauma is inherited not as a static recollection, but as a fragmented, embodied experience that dictates identity. Furthermore, the novel’s non-linear narrative structure, temporal disjunctions, and symbolic imagery—such as the excavation of secret campus graves—are analyzed as formal reflections of the cyclical and disruptive nature of postmemorial recall. Ultimately, the article argues that The Nickel Boys functions as a vital literary memorial and a cultural critique, challenging the societal and institutional mechanisms that suppress historical violence while calling for a collective reckoning with America’s racial injustices.