This volume approaches the history of slave testimony in three ways: by prioritising the broad tradition over individual authors; by representing inter-disciplinary approaches to slave narratives; and by highlighting emerging scholarship on slave narratives, concerning both established debates over concerns of authorship and agency, for example, and developing concerns like eco-critical readings of slave narratives.

Given the rise of new interdisciplinary and methodological approaches to African American and Black Atlantic studies, The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative will offer a fresh, wide-ranging assessment of this major American literary genre. The volume will begin with articles that consider the fundamental concerns of gender, sexuality, community, and the Christian ethos of suffering and redemption that are central to any understanding of slave narratives. The chapters that follow will interrogate the various agendas behind the production of both pre- and post-Emancipation narratives and take up the various interpretive problems they pose. Strategic omissions and veiled gestures were often necessary in these life accounts as they revealed disturbing, too-painful truths, far beyond what white audiences were prepared to hear. While touching upon the familiar canonical autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, the Handbook will pay more attention to the under-studied narratives of Josiah Henson, Sojourner Truth, William Grimes, Henry Box Brown, and other often-overlooked accounts. In addition to the literary autobiographies of bondage, the volume will anatomize the powerful WPA recordings of interviews with former slaves during the late 1930s. With essays on the genre's imaginative afterlife, its final essays will chart the emergence and development of neoslave narratives, most notably in Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner, Toni Morrisons's Beloved and Octavia Butler's provocative science fiction novel, Kindred. In short, the Handbook will provide a long-overdue assessment of the state of the genre and the vital scholarship that continues to grow around it, work that is offering some of the most provocative analysis emerging out of the literary studies discipline as a whole.

Negotiating Freedom : Writing the Emancipated Narrative -- Sketches of Slave Life, First Edition -- Sketches of Slave Life, Second Edition -- From Slave Cabin to the Pulpit -- Appendix -- Chronology

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, language: English, abstract: This thesis will go in depth in an effort to answer whether Twelve Years a Slave is an appropriate book to teach in German classrooms and how it can be taught. Furthermore, this paper will equip high school teachers with a step-by-step outline offering background information, teaching ideas and suggestions. The details in this paper, along with the analyses and presentation, provide the reader with essential information that will later be referred to in the teaching unit. Different themes that are considered of high importance are presented to equip the teacher for a unit using the narrative Twelve Years a Slave. Slavery is alive and well in our society today, nearly one hundred fifty after its legal end. Human trafficking, brothel houses, and franchise owners enslaving undocumented workers are just a few instances of modern day slavery. Consequently, this begs the question if, and what, is the importance of learning about slavery? Furthermore, what is the best and most influential way to portray this controversial issue? History books are a common source in history lessons all over the world, even if they involve factual texts that do not have a great effect on students. When teaching the institution of slavery, though, the genre of slave narrative is worth considering using. In recent years slave narratives have resurfaced, shedding light and insight into the peculiar institution of slavery in the antebellum South. Frederick Douglass and Harriett Jacobs -to name a few- are examples of former slaves who shared their story and expedited the antislavery movement. Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped, sold into slavery and deprived of liberty for twelve years wrote one of the most popular slave narratives, documenting his experiences during his time in bondage. The peculiar institution of slavery is a complex history topic that is hard to summarize. With his book, Northup created a work that involves the individual life of a slave and presents the institution from a micro perspective. In 2013, the story of his book resurfaced and with the help of British director Steve McQueen and participating actor Brad Pitt, and the 19th century slave narrative turned Hollywood Blockbuster hit. Following the movies big success, Twelve Years a Slave was subsequently added to the national curriculum in the United States.

Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, language: English, abstract: The paper analyzes the connection of slavery and gender depicted by literary devices in Harriet A. Jacobs’ "Incidents in the life of a slave girl" compared to Frederick Douglass’s "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass". This paper is going to examine a few examples of the language and literary devices in these narratives and how they function. In the first section of the paper the focus is on the literary depiction of slavery and gender in "Incidents in the life of a slave girl". In the second part the portrayal of these two characteristics is examined in "Narrative in the life of Frederick Douglass". In the third chapter, the attributes already mentioned are compared to each other. Finally, a conclusion follows. The literature used contains these two slave narratives by Jacobs and Douglass, as well as other writings about these narratives, literary stylistic devices, and the slave topic in general. The year 1773 was essential to the beginning of African American literature in general and also for the genre of slave narratives. By publishing her first book of poetry and being the first female black writer, Phillis Wheatley paved the way for the development of black literature. As part of this development, the genre of slave narratives emerged as well. Slave narratives are written stories of African American slaves and their personal experiences and sufferings during their time of enslavement. Their escape into freedom was often a turning point in the story. The author of these stories wrote them to depict the dehumanising and degrading effects of slavery. Furthermore, slave narratives were written especially for a white audience, since the narrators wanted to obtain that readers believed in the horrors they had to endure and to show the importance of abolishing the institution of slavery. To achieve that the narrators often used a very distinctive and vivid language in their narratives to support the imagination of their readers.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Bamberg (Professur f r Amerikanistik), 58 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In this thesis paper, each of the three black autobiographical writings will be discussed in chronological order. The paper begins with Frederick Douglass's Narrative from 1845, continues with W.E.B. Du Bois's Darkwater from 1920 and finishes with The Autobiography of Malcolm X from 1965. The purpose of this chronological organization is to better trace the development of black autobiographical writing over the period of 120 years. Each autobiography's discussion is divided up into three distinguishable components. A summary of each memoir provides a background against which the further stylistic and thematic discussions can be attempted. Secondly, the historical circumstances, basic structure and narrative techniques of the respective eras of black autobiographical writing and of the specific works will be discussed. The purpose is to closely look at typical features (or, in the case of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, genres) of black autobiographical writings in each period and then, in a second step, analyze each work's specific stylistic and narrative peculiarities. The third and last component of each autobiography's discussion is a close textual interpretation. It shall analyze the development of the self-image of each author as presented in his autobiographical work. These observations will be synthesized in the Conclusion of this thesis paper. The eventual aim of this study is to prove the three thesis elements. First of all, it shall be demonstrated that African-Americans have written autobiographies to comment on the unjust societies they have been living in since slavery. Secondly, it shall be proven that the three distinguishable stages of black autobiographical writing are best represented by this selection of books. And finally, one will see that th

This abridgement of The Oxford Companion to African American Literature collects more than 400 biographies (authors, critics, literary characters and historical figures) of both well-known figures and the lives and careers of writers not found in other reference works. The abridgement also includes the 150 plot summaries of major works. The editors include the biographic details for author entries to include mention of major works, death dates, and awards. The volume reprints in its entirety the five-part 15-page essay, Literary History, capturing the full sweep of African-American writing in the US from the colonial and early national eras to the late 20th century.

The Encyclopedia of American Literature gathers together 350 essays from over 190 leading scholars on the whole of American literature, from European discovery to the present. At the core of the Encyclopedia lie 250 essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists. Figures such as Whitman, Melville, Faulkner, Frost, and Morrison are discussed in detail with each examined in the context of his or her times, an assessment of the writer's current reputation, a bibliography of major works, and a list of major critical and biographical works about the writer. Fifty entries on major works such as Moby Dick, Song of Myself, Walden, The Great Gatsby, The Waste Land, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Death of a Salesman, and Beloved place the work in its historical context and offer a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach. The Encyclopedia also contains essays on literary movements, periods, and themes, pulling together a broad range of information and making connections between them. Each entry has its own primary and annotated secondary bibliography, and a system of cross-references helps readers locate information with ease. The Encyclopedia of American Literature is an outstanding reference source for students studying authors, or particular pieces of literature; libraries looking for one comprehensive source; and readers interested in American literature, its authors, and its connection with various areas of study.