ENGL 3680 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Slave Narrative, Historical Fiction, Judith Butler
15 Sep 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Aminata (and black people) were a "good" - thus the global route and directional flow of goods determined how she would be trafficked. When she tries to return to africa and england in the novel, this subverts the system and breaks the hegemonic directional flow. Slave narratives were used in the abolitionist movement to show the humanity of slaves and the inhumanity of slavery - this is the format the novel tries to mirror. Famous examples including narrative of the life of frederick douglass, and twelve years a slave. Tended to omit graphic violence so as to not offend their white readers. Often accompanied by "testimony" from white abolitionists on the veracity of the narratives or the good character of the authors. This often hijacked, in a sense, the stories of the slaves and put them into the hands of white abolitionists who tried to control what was disseminated.
