Slavery and the Literary Imagination (Selected Papers from the English Institute) by Deborah E. McDowell


Slavery and the Literary Imagination (Selected Papers from the English Institute)
Title : Slavery and the Literary Imagination (Selected Papers from the English Institute)
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 0801839483
ISBN-10 : 9780801839481
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 192
Publication : First published January 1, 1989

Seven noted scholars examine slave narratives and the topic of slavery in American literature, from Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845)—treated in chapted by Jamkes Olney and William L. Andrews—to Sherley Anne Williams'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 Salvery (1901). Hazel V. Carby examines novels of slavery and novels of sharecropping and questions the critical tendency to comflate the two, thereby also conflating the nineteenth century wiith 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 readers 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 Dessa Rose reveals how slavery and freedom—dominant themes in nineteenth-century black literature—continue to command the attention of contemporary authors.

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

  • Sally Sugarman

    At first the publication date concerned me in terms of the timeliness of the papers in the book. I shouldn’t have worried since many of the issues are as timely now as then. It was fascinating to read an analysis of work I did not know or had only heard about. There were seven essays and only one was filled with “testicularity” to borrow from Salinger. All of the others were clear and informative. Booker T. Washington comes out badly as well he should. He saw slavery, with all of its evils, as ultimately beneficial in educating the ignorant African. His concept of his own origins is rather awful as that statement indicates. If blacks worked hard and accommodated to the whites, they would advance and justify their freedom. He did not believe blacks should have the vote. Essentially, he thought blacks were inferior to whites, but slavery was an institution which had saved them despite some of its excesses. He believed in vocational education and scorned blacks who aspired to a liberal education. There is a wonderful contrast between his Up From Slavery and DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk. There is general criticism of the slave narratives and what became reactionary ultimately. Just as Their Eyes Were Watching God reflected Zora Neale Hurston’s essential conservatism, much of the early writing by blacks was in the context of a South that re-enslaved the blacks. There is a discussion of a book, Dessa Rose by Sherley Anne Williams that makes me want to read it because it sounds almost postmodern the way the title character is seen by the others in the book. Jubilee by Margaret Walker and Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps are other books these essays make me want to read. Mostly, I want to read more about black history. I also want to know more about Frederick Douglas whom the more I learn about, the more I admire. I realize that when I was teaching my students did much to expand my knowledge, but now I have to do it on my own. Clearly, there is a literature that is not addressed because of the publication date, but those that are provided me with greater insight. I probably should even read Gone With The Wind since, as it is noted by one of the writers, also comes out of memories of growing up. In Mitchell’s case, however, growing up white. William Styron in his book about Nat Turner also reflects the white perspective. There is a mention in passing of The Color Purple and how it was interpreted by Spielberg in a way that minimized much of the evils of slavery, but Spielberg manages to that even with the Holocaust.