Dismantling slavery: gender and identity in the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, 2005
Jones, Jeffery L.
2005-12-01
2000-2009
African-American slave autobiographies, commonly known as slave narratives, reflect the soul and spirit of an oppressed people. This study analyzes two widely known slave autobiographies of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) and Harriet Ann Jacobs's Incidents in the Life ofa Slave Girl. Written by Herself (1861). This study argues that through writing their autobiographies as freed persons, these two narrators navigate through and overcome racist and sexist constructions of their genders in order to create new and empowered identities. As a methodology, this thesis uses an intersectional paradigm of race, gender, class and sexuality to reveal the close connection between gender and identity that underscores the development of a new and empowered selfhood. From this study, this thesis derives three main conclusions. First, race complicates gender identities through the suppression of the enslaved person's humanity. Second, gender complicates racial identities through the reduction of black manhood and womanhood as human chattel. Finally, Douglass and Jacobs achieve and assert their newly created personal identities through the creation of rhetorical devices and creative survival strategies. As a result, their autobiographies challenge the traditional mode and content of American autobiography.
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application/pdf
thesis
Master of Arts (MA)
Clark Atlanta University
Department of English
Georgia--Atlanta
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/cau.td:2005_jones_jeffery_l
https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/
