EN 4113 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Elaine Showalter, Phillis Wheatley, On Being
23 Oct 2016
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1st american black woman poet to be published, 2nd american woman published, and 2nd. Politically representative of racial equality and class mobility. Wheatley"s population was less for her poetry than for her function, representing all promises of a new and liberated world. Not published in america until after her death. Christian allusions as an implicit critique of the inequality enforced by slavery. The critique is in the ironic use of the biblical allusions: pagan balanced out by. Mercy mercy is a christian concept and pagan as people saved by jesus. Made better by civilization- the savior has saved her. Prior to being a slave, she did not know that she needed redemption. The modern ear hears the irony; only as a slave is she in need of being saved. The mirror effect: the first four lines establishing the value of her new found position as a christian.
