The Slave's Narrative

Rating:
Summary: A must-read for those interested in narrative or slavery
Review: Students of slavery or the narrative form will find this book invaluable. This is a unique collection of essays concerning various aspects of slave narratives. Essays consider difficult questions, such as textual authenticity, in terms of whether texts were written by ex-slaves or abolitionists; fictional and nonfictional elements in slave narratives; and dialect usage.

Nearly all of the essays effortlessly tie in analysis of the narrative form with the subject of slavery. The essays focusing on narratives as literature are especially good. These essays include essays on slave narratives as autobiographies; the slave narrative of Juan Francisco Manzano, whose linear organization is punctuated by moments of torture expressed by textual discontinuities; the feminist slave narrative of Harriet Jacobs; and picaresque slave narratives.