Ghostliness and the Remnants of Slavery in Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing

This article examines how Jesmyn Ward’s novel Sing, Unburied, Sing portrays how the U.S. prison system serves as an ongoing form of enslavement. Utilizing ghostliness and haunting as a manifestation of the intergenerational trauma caused by the institution of slavery, the novel showcases a seemingly never-ending circle of violence that is endorsed through the American justice system. Engaging with these themes, this article analyzes the way in which a ghostly presence haunts the novel’s characters and enforces a reenactment of the past to enable release from the oppressive ties that bind them. In addition, it explores how the novel works to reshape the present through mise en abyme, showing how the ghostly presence throughout grapples with the trauma of the past while allowing for the hope of a restructuring of the present and release in the future.