NAVIGATING RACIAL IDENTITY: DENIAL, REPRESSION, AND RESILIENCE IN NOVEL CAUCASIA BY DANZY SENNA

Dani, Ammar (2025) NAVIGATING RACIAL IDENTITY: DENIAL, REPRESSION, AND RESILIENCE IN NOVEL CAUCASIA BY DANZY SENNA. S1 thesis, Universitas Andalas.

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Abstract

This thesis examines racial identity, defense mechanisms, and resilience issues in Caucasia, a novel by Danzy Senna. Senna portrays Birdie Lee as a biracial child struggling with the complexities of racial identity amidst societal pressures. This research aims to identify how the author portrays the development of Birdie's racial identity, utilizing Freud's concept of defense mechanisms, and how the author represents Birdie's resilience in response to social expectations and racial identity. To conduct this study, the researcher applies Sigmund Freud's theory of the "Model of Psyche" and defense mechanisms such as Denial and Repression, and also Emmy Werner's resilience theory, which discusses three stages of resilience development: trauma identification, adaptive analysis, and positive transformation. This qualitative research employs a descriptive method to present the analytical findings. The research findings show that Senna vividly portrays the development of Birdie’s racial identity by navigating internal conflict, balancing her id, ego, and superego. The analysis proposes that Senna apparently illustrates how trauma and social pressures are blended with developmental resilience in the process of defining identity, which is rooted in the dissonance between the authentic self and societal demands related to racial identity. The relationships with other characters and the process of integrating her identity contribute significantly to the development of her resilience in facing social expectations, ultimately facilitating a positive transformation towards a unified sense of self. Keywords: racial identity, denial, repression, resilience, psychology, biracial.

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