Trickster Spirits and Ghostly Echoes: A Cultural Exploration of Trauma, Memory, and Haunting in Literature

This dissertation analyzes novels from Black American, Malaysian, and Vietnamese American literary traditions to examine how memory is transmitted and reimagined through literary hauntings. It focuses on distinct historical traumas—including the legacy of slavery and systemic racism in the U.S., the Japanese occupation of Malaya, and the refugee displacement following the Vietnam War—and explores how these events continue to shape contemporary identities. Rather than treating memory as universal, the study foregrounds how specific cultural frameworks shape the form and function of memory transmission; it reveals memory as socially mediated and continuously reimagined across generations.