Trauma Meets Syncopation in the Blues Matrix: Music as Identity Maker in African American Sexual Revenge Narratives

This paper examines the substantial role of African American musical traditions in modern era identity formation, focusing on the interplay between trauma and the presence of the blues aesthetic in sexual revenge narratives written by James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, namely Another Country, Giovanni’s Room, Jazz, and Song of Solomon. Through the lens of the blues matrix, this comparative analysis explores the ways in which identity crises coincide with aspects of early blues and jazz. Structurally engaging with oral influences, the research offers a new perspective on blues literature in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, reaffirming the dependent relation between the individual and his cultural heritage.

Keywords: African American (post)modernism, blues matrix, identity formation, jazz, urban landscape