The Slave's Narrative

Book Overview

These autobiographies of Afro-American ex-slaves comprise the largest body of literature produced by slaves in human history. The book consists of three sections: selected reviews of slave narratives, dating from 1750 to 1861; essays examining how such narratives serve as historical material; and essays exploring the narratives as literary artifacts.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195066561
• ISBN13: 9780195066562
• Release Date: February 1991
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Useful Classroom Text

I use this text every semester to teach slave narratives because it features the most important 20th century critical essays about slave narratives. However it needs to be updated to include more recent essays published since 1988. Still, it's indispensable and accessible to my undergraduate students who have no background in literary criticism.

A must-read for those interested in narrative or slavery

Students of slavery or the narrative form will find this book invaluable. This is a unique collection of essays concerning various aspects of slave narratives. Essays consider difficult questions, such as textual authenticity, in terms of whether texts were written by ex-slaves or abolitionists; fictional and nonfictional elements in slave narratives; and dialect usage.Nearly all of the essays effortlessly tie in analysis of the narrative form with the subject of slavery. The essays focusing on narratives as literature are especially good. These essays include essays on slave narratives as autobiographies; the slave narrative of Juan Francisco Manzano, whose linear organization is punctuated by moments of torture expressed by textual discontinuities; the feminist slave narrative of Harriet Jacobs; and picaresque slave narratives.