Racial Identity and Ecological Belonging in Toni Morrison’s Beloved: A Study through Social Identity Theory and Eco-Race Theory

Abstract

This paper examines Toni Morrison’s Beloved in 1987 through Social Identity Theory and Eco-Race Theory to explore how race, memory, and environment intersect in the aftermath of slavery. Social Identity Theory by Tajfel & Turner, in 1979, highlights the ways African Americans rebuilt collective identity in the face of exclusion, while Eco-Race Theory by Bullard in 1990 and Chavis in 1987 underscores how landscapes, plantations, haunted houses, and clearings carry racialized trauma. While these frameworks illuminate the social and ecological dimensions of identity, the study also reflects critically on their limitations: Social Identity Theory can oversimplify complex, intersectional identities, while Eco-Race Theory has been critiqued for privileging U.S.-centric models of environmental racism. Beyond theoretical analysis, the paper situates Beloved within contemporary debates on systemic racism, environmental justice, and collective healing. Morrison’s narrative techniques of haunting, fragmentation, and shifting perspectives embody these entanglements, offering both a warning and a vision for ecological and social restoration.