Slavery and the Literary Imagination (Selected Papers from the English Institute) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801837561 ISBN 13: 9780801837562

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988

Synopsis

Seven noted scholars examine slave narratives and the topic of slavery in American literature, from Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845)-- treated in chapters by James Olney and William L. Andrews-- to Sheley Anne William's "Dessa Rose" (1984). Among the contributors, Arnold Rampersad reads W.E.B. DuBois's classic work "The Souls of Black Folk" (1903) as a response to Booker T. Washington's "Up from Slavery" (1901). Hazel V. Carby examines novels of slavery and novels of sharecropping and questions the critical tendency to conflate the two, thereby also conflating the nineteenth century with the twentieth, the rural with the urban.

Although works by Afro-American writers are the primary focus, the authors also examine antislavery novels by white women. Hortense J. Spillers gives extensive attention to Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", in juxtaposition with Ishmael Reed's "Flight to Canada"; Carolyn L. Karcher reads Lydia Maria Child's "A Romance of the Republic" as an abolitionist vision of America's racial destiny.

In a concluding chapter, Deborah E. McDowell's reading of "Desa Rose" reveals how slavery and freedom-- dominant themes in nineteenth-century black literature-- continue to command the attention of contemporary authors.

About this title

Review

"This volume of essays represents the widest spectrum of criticism to date on the intersection of American slavery and literary artistry." -- Joyce H. Scott, American Literature

Edition details

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0801837561
• ISBN 13: 9780801837562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192
• Editor: McDowell Professor Deborah E., Rampersad Professor Arnold