An Impossible Genre? The Contemporary Neo Slave Narrative (FM and FS BA Seminar: Genre)
Dienstag, 05.12.2023
In this seminar we will trace the development of the genre of the slave narrative from the mid-19th century to its most recent manifestations in Black American literature. Originally circulated as autobiographical accounts of the horrors of slavery and as first-hand testimonies of the slaves’ struggle for freedom, slave narratives powerfully contributed to the cause of abolitionism, which culminated, in 1865, in the U.S. Congress’ ratification of the 13th Amendment. While, at first glance, the genre might seem to have lost its usefulness with the end of the slavery system, contemporary literary examples of what has been dubbed as the “neo-slave narrative” are legions. But what are the new aesthetic and political stakes of these 20th and 21st century tales of bondage and escape? In order to find an answer to this question, we will investigate the ways in which these narratives negotiate the memory of the past, intervene into the present, and articulate their visions of the future. By considering the ways in which the conventions of the genre have changed from the antebellum U.S., through the post-civil rights era, to today, we will try to identify the linguistic, literary, imaginative, and critical resources mobilized in the paradoxical task of giving voice to a history of violent loss, brutal silencing, and to its unspeakable atrocities.
Required Reading: The main texts we will be reading over the course of the seminar will be made available for purchase at the Bugeno bookstore and students are strongly encouraged to read them in advance to the beginning of the semester. Shorter texts as well as secondary and critical material will be posted on Ilias. Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life must be read before the first session; your knowledge of it may be subject to examination.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Norton Critical Edition, ISBN: 978-0393969665.
Butler, Octavia. Kindred (1979). Headline, ISBN: 978-1-4722-5822-9.
Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad (2016). Anchor Books, ISBN: 978-0-345-80432-7.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. The Water Dancer (2019). Hamish Hamilton, ISBN: 978-0-241-32525-4.
| Veranstaltungsart: | Vorlesung/Seminar |
|---|---|
| Dozierende(r): | Dr. Viola Marchi |
| 05.12.2023: | 14:15 - 16:00 |
| Ort: |
Unitobler Lerchenweg 36 3012 Bern EG, F002 |
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