Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change
Author :
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Total Pages : 188
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780820336992
ISBN-13 : 0820336998
Rating : 4/5 (998 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change by : Kari J. Winter

Download or read book Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change written by Kari J. Winter and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change Kari J. Winter compares the ways in which two marginalized genres of women's writing - female Gothic novels and slave narratives - represent the oppression of women and their resistance to oppression. Analyzing the historical contexts in which Gothic novels and slave narratives were written, Winter shows that both types of writing expose the sexual politics at the heart of patriarchal culture and both represent the terrifying aspects of life for women. Female Gothic novelists such as Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Ann Radcliffe, and Mary Shelley uncover the terror of the familiar - the routine brutality and injustice of the patriarchal family and of conventional religion, as well as the intersecting oppressions of gender and class. They represent the world as, in Mary Wollstonecraft's words, "a vast prison" in which women are "born slaves." Writing during the same period, Harriet Jacobs, Nancy Prince, and other former slaves in the United States expose the "all-pervading corruption" of southern slavery. Their narratives combine strident attacks on the patriarchal order with criticism of white women's own racism and classism. These texts challenge white women to repudiate their complicity in a racist culture and to join their black sisters in a war against the "peculiar institution." Winter explores as well the ways that Gothic heroines and slave women resisted subjugation. Moments of escape from the horrors of patriarchal domination provide the protagonists with essential periods of respite from pain. Because this escape is never more than temporary, however, both types of narrative conclude tensely. The novelists refuse to affirm either hope or despair, thereby calling into question conventional endings of marriage or death. And although slave narratives were typically framed by white-authored texts, containment of the black voice did not diminish the inherent revolutionary conclusion of antislavery writing. According to Winter, both Gothic novels and slave narratives suggest that although women are victims and mediators of the dominant order they also can become agents of historical change.


Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change Related Books

Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change
Language: en
Pages: 188
Authors: Kari J. Winter
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-07-01 - Publisher: University of Georgia Press

GET EBOOK

In Subjects of Slavery, Agents of Change Kari J. Winter compares the ways in which two marginalized genres of women's writing - female Gothic novels and slave n
The Blind African Slave
Language: en
Pages: 266
Authors: Jeffrey Brace
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-02-16 - Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

GET EBOOK

The Blind African Slave recounts the life of Jeffrey Brace (né Boyrereau Brinch), who was born in West Africa around 1742. Captured by slave traders at the age
The American Slave Narrative and the Victorian Novel
Language: en
Pages: 729
Authors: Julia Sun-Joo Lee
Categories: Literary Collections
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-04-09 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

GET EBOOK

Conceived as a literary form to aggressively publicize the abolitionist cause in the United States, the African American slave narrative remains a powerful and
American Gothic
Language: en
Pages: 279
Authors: Robert K. Martin
Categories: Language Arts & Disciplines
Type: BOOK - Published: 1998-06 - Publisher: University of Iowa Press

GET EBOOK

In America as in Britain, the rise of the Gothic represented the other—the fearful shadows cast upon Enlightenment philosophies of common sense, democratic po
The Nadir and the Zenith
Language: en
Pages: 257
Authors: Anna Pochmara
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-05-01 - Publisher: University of Georgia Press

GET EBOOK

The Nadir and the Zenith is a study of temperance and melodramatic excess in African American fiction before the Harlem Renaissance. Anna Pochmara combines form