Male- and Female- Centered Plots in the Neo-Slave Narrative

master's thesis

• Author: Viktorija Solin
• Mentor: Jelena Šesnić (mentor)
• Committee member: Sven Cvek (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Stipe Grgas (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2021-06-08, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss the neo-slave narrative, which developed during the Civil Rights Movement, as a much-needed reconfiguration of the image of slavery that usually filled the slave narratives. The neo-slave narrative is a historical fiction which represents the everyday lives of marginalized African Americans and foregrounds their experiences in slavery and its aftermath. By doing so, it rewrites the hurtful past and inserts a new form of black-consciousness which aims to help with the... More traumatic remembrance. Furthermore, the paper deals with the gender-oriented master plots. The representatives of the male master plot are Charles Johnson’s Middle Passage and David Anthony Durham’s Walk Through Darkness. These novels distance themselves from the usual slave narratives by incorporating the theme of fatherhood. The representatives of the female master plot are Margaret Walker’s Jubilee and Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose. These novels proudly deal with the theme of motherhood, while simultaneously commenting on the women’s secondary position in society. The purpose of this study is to discuss and exemplify how the old patterns of the slave narratives are rewritten, and what the new implications are that will help in dealing with the troubled past for African Americans and for the nation. Less

• Keywords: the neo-slave narrative; cultural trauma; black tradition; male; female; racial identity
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:208793
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (single major); specializations in: TEFL, Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation; Course: Literature and Culture; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2021-06-10 18:22:33