Since the 19th century, narratives of slavery have been integral in discussing the race and identity of enslaved Africans in the “New World”. From their inception, these narratives played a role in the social and political struggles of the African diaspora, which produced them. “Slave narratives” functioned as a mouthpiece for abolition in the 19th century. Twentieth-century “neo-slave narratives” were likewise integral to Civil-Rights activism in the United States. We will discuss this seminar’s narratives of slavery from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries to fully understand the tradition of the genre and its cultural-historical development. We will discuss how the genre transcends its primary function as a text of antislavery and abolition or as a “protest text”, especially in the 21st century. This seminar will focus on the importance of these narratives in the context of slavery, in terms of the complexities of “race” and identity and the cultural self-expression of the African diaspora.

*The assessment of this seminar will be a final 4000-word paper. Deadline September 1st 2023.
** This is a reading-intensive seminar; participants must be prepared to thoroughly read the novels and the required essays for the seminar.

Each participant is required to read at least one of the books. I strongly recommend that students read all of the books to follow the development of the slave narrative genre and to participate in the seminar fully. During the first meeting, the novels will be assigned to groups of students who will then be experts on the specific books and prepare short 15-minute presentations individually or as groups, depending on the number of students in the seminar. The first book in the seminar is relatively shorter than the other two novels, but that is because the first students will have less time to read and present in the class.

Students must purchase the following editions of the novels:

Octavia E. Butler. Kindred. 1979. Headline, 2018. [ISBN-13: 978-1472258229]
Evaristo Bernardine. Blonde Roots. 2008.Penguin Books, 2009. [ISBN-13:978-0141031521]
Harriet A. Jacobs. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.1861. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. [ISBN-13: 978-1503277946]