MLA English Literature Review Example: Trauma and Memory in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

5 EngLit-specific scoring dimensions (combined with MLA)

Comparison fields: Dimension Poor signal Strong signal

1 Primary text integration Only secondary criticism Beloved quoted and cited by page alongside scholarly sources

2 Interpretive claim "Morrison shows slavery was bad" Argues a specific mechanism (haunting as traumatic memory made material)

3 Critical conversation Lists critics in isolation Places critics in debate (Hamilton vs. Wyatt vs. Bouson)

4 MLA mechanics (Author, p. 45) APA style (Author 45) no comma; "Works Cited"; title case; double quotes

5 Precise gap "More criticism needed" Names a scene, motif, or critical lens not yet reconciled

Strong draft (MLA 9th, annotated)

[Thesis / scope] Beloved figures slavery's unresolved trauma not as a historical backdrop but as a supernatural materialization of memory—the ghost Sethe cannot exorcise because the nation has not mourned what it cannot bear to remember. [Narrative, primary text] Morrison writes that 124 Bluestone Road is "spiteful" (3), and the novel sustains this haunting through Beloved's bodily return, a device that converts psychic wound into visible, demanding presence. [Narrative, 1 critic] Hamilton reads the supernatural at 124 Bluestone Road as trauma's literalization, locating the ghost within a long tradition of "revisions, rememories and exorcisms" through which Morrison rewrites the slave narrative (432). [Parenthetical, multi-source, alphabetical] Yet the critical conversation is divided over whether this haunting ultimately produces healing: Wyatt emphasizes the maternal symbolic and the daughter's reclaiming of language (478), while Bouson locates the novel's ethical force in its refusal of shame (xii). [Counter-evidence / secondary text] Morrison's own nonfiction qualifies a purely redemptive reading: in "The Site of Memory," she describes remembering as "the act of imagination" rather than recovery (68), suggesting that the novel's resolution remains deliberately unfinished. [Mechanism / synthesis] Taken together, these readings converge on a formal claim: the supernatural is not genre decoration but the novel's epistemology of memory—what cannot be documented (the Middle Passage, the scar) returns as what can be felt. [Precise gap] What remains unresolved is how this haunting mechanism changes when Beloved is read through the lens of Afrofuturism rather than trauma studies—a gap that matters because the novel's time-bending form has generated a small but growing critical conversation that the dominant traumatic-memory frame tends to flatten.

[Critical-conversation subsection] The scholarship organizes around two positions. [Narrative, 1 critic + primary] Hamilton and Peterson's collection treat the supernatural as historical witness: the ghost makes the erased past present, and Beloved's body is the archive slavery was denied (Hamilton 438; Peterson 4). [Parenthetical, 1 critic] By contrast, Wyatt and Bouson approach the same scenes through psychoanalysis and affect: the maternal bond and shame, respectively, explain why memory assumes a supernatural form (Bouson 27; Wyatt 480). [Synthesis] Both camps agree that the supernatural means something beyond itself; they disagree only on whether that meaning is historical or psychical. [Gap restatement] A literature review that forces the novel into one camp will miss Morrison's formal ambiguity—the way the text sustains both readings simultaneously.

[Context / primary-source subsection] Morrison's own critical writings are the third term. [Narrative, secondary text] In "The Site of Memory," Morrison distinguishes between "fact" and the "interior life" that fiction recovers (70), a distinction that reframes the novel's relation to history. [Parenthetical, 1 critic + primary] Read alongside Beloved, this essay suggests that the supernatural is the genre most adequate to a history whose records were destroyed; as Peterson notes, "the past is never past" in Morrison's fiction (12). [Precise gap] A review that treats the primary text as raw material for critical theory alone will reproduce the very erasure Morrison's formal choices resist.

In-text citation audit (MLA 9th demonstrated)

• Primary text (narrative): Morrison writes that... (3). → first time (Morrison 3); subsequent (45)

• Primary text, disambiguation: (Beloved 88) — shortened title in italics

• 1 critic: (Hamilton 432) — no comma, page only

• 2 critics: (Bouson xii; Wyatt 478) — alphabetical in parentheses, semicolon-separated

• 3+ authors: (Peterson et al. 22) — et al. in roman type, from first citation

• Two authors: (Hamilton and Wyatt 301) — "and" in parentheses (not &)

• Secondary text by Morrison: ("Site" 68) — shortened title, alphabetized under "S" (ignoring "The")

• Indirect: not used here; if needed (qtd. in Peterson 45)

Page-number caveat. The page citations above (e.g., Wyatt 478, 480; Morrison 68, 70; Bouson xii; Peterson 4, 12) fall within the known page ranges of the cited editions and identify the relevant arguments, but should be verified against your own copy—especially Beloved, whose paperback and hardback paginations differ.

Works Cited (MLA 9th, matches citations above)

Works Cited

Bouson, J. Brooks. Quiet as It's Kept: Shame, Trauma, and Race in the Novels of Toni Morrison. SUNY P, 2000.

Hamilton, Cynthia S. "Revisions, Rememories and Exorcisms: Toni Morrison and the Slave Narrative." Journal of American Studies, vol. 30, no. 3, 1996, pp. 429–445.

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Knopf, 1987.

---. "The Site of Memory." What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction, edited by Carolyn C. Denard, UP of Mississippi, 2008, pp. 65–80.

Peterson, Nancy J., editor. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

Wyatt, Jean. "Giving Body to the Word: The Maternal Symbolic in Toni Morrison's Beloved." PMLA, vol. 108, no. 3, 1993, pp. 474–488.

Format checks (MLA 9th)

• Heading "Works Cited", centered (not "References" or "Bibliography")

• Alphabetical by surname; three em dashes followed by a period may replace Morrison's name when the institutional guide follows this MLA convention on the second entry

• Title case for all titles; Beloved and journal names italicized; article and chapter titles in double quotation marks

• vol. no. pp. abbreviated; publisher shortened (SUNY P, Johns Hopkins UP); no place of publication

• No DOI (print sources; add doi: or https://doi.org/ only if required)

• Hanging indent throughout

What changed: poor draft → strong MLA draft

Element Poor draft Strong MLA draft (above)

Opening "Morrison writes about slavery." Interpretive thesis: haunting as memory's materialization

Primary text Treated as background Beloved cited by page; Morrison's nonfiction as secondary text

Critical conversation Isolated summaries Hamilton/Peterson (historical) vs. Wyatt/Bouson (psychoanalytic) in debate

In-text citations APA-style (Author, p. 45) (Author page) no comma; et al. roman

Multi-source One per sentence Alphabetical, semicolon-separated

Title treatment Mixed Title case throughout; italics + double quotes correct

Gap "More criticism needed." Names lens (Afrofuturism) + mechanism (time-bending form)

List "References" "Works Cited" with ---. for repeat author

Page numbers Asserted without caveat Page-number caveat added (paperback vs. hardback)

5 fatal signals (EngLit-specific)

1. The review paraphrases critics but never quotes Beloved — a literary review must center the primary text.

2. In-text citations use (Author, p. 45) with a comma — that is APA/Hardvard, not MLA.

3. The Works Cited is labeled "References" or "Bibliography."

4. Article titles are italicized or in single quotes — MLA uses double quotes; italics are for books and journals.

5. All titles are in sentence case ("The history of x") — MLA requires title case.

Rewrite Checklist (MLA × EngLit)

1. Open with a single interpretive claim about the primary text — not a plot summary.

2. Cite the primary text by page number in parentheses; distinguish it from criticism with a shortened title if needed.

3. Group critics into a conversation (at least two positions in debate); do not list them in isolation.

4. Convert every in-text citation to (Author page) — no comma, no "p."

5. Change the list heading to "Works Cited"; use ---. for a second work by the same author.

6. Apply title case to every title; double quotes for short works, italics for long works.

7. Include one primary-source essay or author interview (Morrison's nonfiction/criticism) as a secondary text.

8. Close with a gap naming a critical lens or scene the current conversation has not reconciled. Verify every page citation against your own edition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does MLA use (Author page) instead of (Author, Year)?

MLA was designed for literary and cultural analysis, where readers need to locate a specific passage (a page in a poem, play, or novel), not just a publication year. The author–page system keeps the focus on the text.

Is et al. italicized in MLA?

Not by the official rule. The MLA Handbook uses roman (non-italic) et al.; some university style sheets still italicize it. This review follows the official roman form. Ask your instructor and stay consistent.

How do I cite a novel I discuss throughout?

Cite the page number in parentheses after each quotation or specific reference: (Morrison 45). In your Works Cited, list the novel as a book. If you discuss two works by the same author, add a shortened title: (Beloved 88).

Why do my page numbers not match the Works Cited?

Beloved exists in editions with different paginations (e.g., Plume paperback vs. Knopf hardback). The Works Cited records the edition you used; in-text pages must match your copy. If you cite a passage, check that the page exists in your edition.

Can I reuse this review's citations?

No. Use the structure and MLA mechanics as a model; replace the sources with your own research, and confirm each against your library catalog.

Verify the Style Rules Before Submission

Citation styles change, and universities often publish local variants. Use the official guidance below as a starting point, then follow the handbook, department guide, or journal instructions that govern your submission.

• MLA Style Center: MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition

Continue Through the Citation-Style Series

• MLA Literature Review Example Hub

• Chicago Literature Review Example

• Annotated Literature Review Example Hub

Use Acade for the Next Citation Task

Tell Acade your primary text, edition, critical question, verified scholarship, and MLA requirements. Ask it to map the critical conversation, check author-page citations, and flag page numbers or Works Cited details that need verification against your copies.

Acade can support citation formatting and reference organization, but it cannot guarantee that a generated entry is correct. You remain responsible for opening the original source, confirming the author, title, edition, date, pages, DOI or URL, and applying the rules required by your institution or publisher.

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