In Toni Morrison’s first novel, there are three perpetrators of the sexual abuse of a child: Cholly Breedlove, Mr. Henry, and Soaphead Church. Professor Haviland argues that there are different kinds of guilt and shame that should be considered in this novel, and uses Lacan’s clinical analysis of perversion to understand the persistence of white supremacy through a psychoanalytic framework that takes account of the difficulty of changing irrational beliefs that are sustained by sexual drives.

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“What I Am Thinking About Now” is an on-going informal workshop/seminar series to which faculty and graduate students are invited to present and discuss recently published work and work in progress. All are invited to attend and participate.