Early Black Fiction by Professor Diana Paulin

Early Black Fiction by Professor Diana Paulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce en-us 2023-09-19 18:16:04 UTC 2023-09-19 18:55:43 UTC hello@padlet.com Early Black Voices: An Introduction to Slave Narratives professordianapaulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711360244 What is a slave narrative and what was the purpose?

How do you represent one's humanity when you are not considered fully human? (a question already navigated by Wheatley)]]> 2023-09-19 18:21:51 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711360244 Genre of Slave Narratives professordianapaulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711366162 What is a genre?

How does understanding genre relate to the analysis and contextualization of slave narratives?

Slave narratives do not necessarily fit neatly into a generic category, although they most closely resemble autobiographies.

Tension between the importance of establishing ones authority and authenticating voice BUT also problematizing and critiquing accepted truths and stereotypes by highlighting their performative nature]]> 2023-09-19 18:25:46 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711366162 Form is Related to Ideology professordianapaulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711389250 It is important to understand how the form and the way they were produced is largely responsible for their uncertain status as subjects of critical inquiry.

In the earliest narratives the relationship of the narrator or text was triangulated through the ordering intelligence of a white amanuensis or editor because slavery was still seen as a fundamentally benevolent institution and slave was seen as either an outlaw or wayfarer in need of protection that only white paternal authority could provide

Period of 1830's to 1860's--claims that they were written by narrator but followed a format established by abolitionist translators/publishers/readers

Status as both popular art and propaganda imposed on them a repetitiveness of structure, tone, content that obscured individual achievements and artistic merit]]> 2023-09-19 18:41:02 UTC https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711389250 General Conventions for Slave Narrative professordianapaulin https://padlet.com/professordianapaulin/sv88mrz1b5655jce/wish/2711400291 Formulaic and hybrid quality combines elements of history, autobiography, fiction and intervening voices

By thinking about slave narrative as a genre, we can set up certain conventions against which to measure different formulations of different authors and see how each one responds to "the problem" of representing blackness within certain constraints (think of Wheatley and poetic forms)

· Prefatory remarks by whites attesting to good character/reliability, 6

· Slave’s passage from slavery of South to Freedom in North/beyond

· Journey from orality to literacy

· Slavery portrayed as hell on earth—extreme physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual deprivation

· Personal crisis precipitates narrator’s decision to escape

· Impelled by faith in God/commitment to liberty/human dignity comparable to that of America’s Founding fathers, slave undertakes arduous quest for freedom

· Climax: Attainment of freedom, usually arrival to North

· Symbol of freedom: renaming oneself, dedicating life to antislavery activism (but in some cases merely continuing to survive)

· Very popular, indigenous literary form, focus on freedom added to romance of genre—later forms indebted to it (Stowe)

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