The African-American Slave Narrative in Context: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs

• Thesis title in Czech: Vyprávění afroamerických otroků v souvislostech: Frederick Douglass a Harriet Ann Jacobs
• Thesis title in English: The African-American Slave Narrative in Context: Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs
• Key words: vyprávění otroků, otroctví, Afroameričané, identita, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, 19. století
• English key words: slave narrative, slavery, African-Americans, identity, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, 19th century
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2014/2015
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 02.10.2014
• Date of assignment: 06.10.2014
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 08.10.2014
• Date and time of defence: 03.02.2016 09:00
• Date of electronic submission: 11.01.2016
• Date of proceeded defence: 03.02.2016
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: David Lee Robbins, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The aim of this MA thesis is to explore the genre of the African-American slave narrative with the objective to point out the manner in which the genre depicted the identities of former slave narrators that slavery purposely diminished. The point of departure will be a brief exploration of the wider historical, philosophical and socio-economical background that influenced the tones and perspectives of the narrators and their editors at the time when the genre with its specific and highly uniform narrative designs emerged. For example, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery by African-British author Quobna Ottobah Cugoano will be introduced as one of the first texts that uses autobiography as a means to abolish the African slave trade. This text influenced writers even across the Atlantic. Subsequent changes of the American society that reshaped the religious tones of the early narratives into more radical demands for immediate abolition of slavery conveyed by the antebellum slave narratives will be mentioned. For example, Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself will be referred to in support of these ideas. After the major characteristics of the genre of the African-American slave narrative are discussed, more analytical chapters focusing on two well-known narratives will follow.
Despite their ability to extricate themselves from the limited ways of expression that the formal conventions of the genre allowed, Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs are recognized as the most representative narrators of the genre. Therefore, one chapter should be devoted to Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and point out the aspects in which the text mirrors the established narrative framework. Then, themes such as education, family and gender will be analyzed, revealing how Douglass established his personal identity on the background of the genre that eliminated any aspects of self-definition. The next chapter will be devoted to the first woman’s fugitive slave narrative in the United States Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. Its author’s successful configuration of the genre that reflects her gender identity and addresses issues related to her gender will be discussed, alongside the themes of family, sexual corruption and womanhood. To be more specific, this chapter will also argue that Jacobs questions the concept of true womanhood as a socially constructed perception that excludes, by its definition, black women. The conclusion, then, will focus on what the thesis has exposed. In addition, the ways in which the identities of slave narrators and their self-perceptions have developed since the establishment of the genre should be discussed on the examples of such texts as Sherley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose.

References

Primary Sources:
Douglass, Frederick. Autobiographies; Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass, an American slave, My Bondage and My Freedom, Life and Times of Frederic Douglass. New York: The Library of America, 1994.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself. New York: Penguin, 2000.
Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. The Cornwall Press: Cornwall, 1965.
Secondary Sources:
Andrews, William L. Six Women’s Slave Narratives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Andrews, William L. To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
Carby, Hazel. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Davis, Charles T. and Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Slave’s Narrative. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
Fisch, Audrey. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Slave Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Fulton, DoVeanna S. Speaking Power: Black Feminist Orality in Women’s Narratives of Slavery. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006.
King, Lovalerie. Race, Theft, and Ethics: Property Matters in African American Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007.
Lovejoy, Paul E. Identity in the Shadow of Slavery. London: Continuum, 2009.
Patton, Venetria K. Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women’s Fiction. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000.
Stepto, Robert B. From Behind the Veil: A Study of Afro-American Narrative. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1991.