The afterlife of slavery is one of the most powerful heuristics guiding the study of the social, historical, political, and cultural effects of transatlantic slavery in the Americas. Coined by the scholar and critic Saidiya Hartman, who herself builds on the work of Hazel V. Carby and Hortense Spillers, the afterlife of slavery identifies the ways in which American civic and popular culture, public and private life, are haunted by the traumas not only of chattel slavery but also of the unfinished project of abolition. Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987) is routinely cited as an inspiration for and an exemplum of this interpretive lens. However, over twenty years after the publication of the novel, Morrison grappled with the question of whether one could imagine life outside the parameters of what would come to be known as the afterlife of slavery. In A Mercy (2008), we see Morrison fabulating social intimacy and social conflict beyond, which is to say before, a predetermined fate. This lecture assesses the compatibility of this fictional project with the afterlife of slavery, with special attention to records showing how Morrison guided the publication of her book.

Professor Kinohi Nishikawa teaches African American literature and culture at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA. He is the author of Street Players: Black Pulp Fiction and the Making of a Literary Underground, which was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. The author of numerous essays, articles, and chapters in African American book history, bibliography, and print culture studies, Nishikawa’s most recent publications have appeared in ASAP/Journal, American Literary History, and Novel: A Forum on Fiction. He is currently at work on the edited collection Sites of Memory: Toni Morrison and the Archive (with Autumn M. Womack) and on a monograph, Black Paratext: Reading African American Literature by Design.

About Juneteenth: Juneteenth is a holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans; it is observed annually on June 19. The date marks the anniversary of the proclamation of freedom for slaves in Texas in 1865. The name Juneteenth is the blending of the words "June" and "nineteenth". 

We cordially invite you to join us for a reception after the lecture and discussion.

This event will be held in English.

Please register here. 

Registration will end on June 10. 

This event is kindly supported by the Federal Foreign Office. 

We cordially thank the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies and the North American Studies Program at the University of Bonn for their cooperation.