Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-Century African American Women - Softcover

Moody, Joycelyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820325740 ISBN 13: 9780820325743

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2003

Synopsis

Sentimental Confessions is a groundbreaking study of evangelicalism, sentimentalism, and nationalism in early African American holy women’s autobiography. At its core are analyses of the life writings of six women―Maria Stewart, Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Nancy Prince, Mattie J. Jackson, and Julia Foote―all of which appeared in the mid-nineteenth century.

Joycelyn Moody shows how these authors appropriated white-sanctioned literary conventions to assert their voices and to protest the racism, patriarchy, and other forces that created and sustained their poverty and enslavement. In doing so, Moody also reveals the wealth of insights that could be gained from these kinds of writings if we were to acknowledge the spiritual convictions of their authors―if we read them because (not although) they are holy texts. The deeply held, passionately expressed beliefs of these women, says Moody, should not be brushed aside by scholars who may be tempted to view them as naïve or as indicative only of the racial, class, and gender oppressions these women suffered. In addition, Moody promotes new ways of looking at dictated narratives without relegating them to a status below self-authored texts.

Helping to recover a neglected chapter of American literary history, Sentimental Confessions is filled with insights into the state of the nation in the nineteenth century.

About this title

From the Publisher

How black holy women, through their narratives, subverted an America determined to silence them.

About the Author

JOYCELYN MOODY is an associate professor of English at the University of Washington.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0820325740
• ISBN 13: 9780820325743
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 216