239558 Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Slave Narratives (S) (WiSe 2011/2012)

Slave narratives is a literary genre that emerged out of the ex-slaves’ need to simultaneously testify against their oppressors and the ideological rationale deployed to justify their enslavement. As such, the narratives of ex-slaves are committed to human dignity and are embedded in the very ideals upheld by the Founding Fathers of the United States of America in the Declaration of Independence. By analyzing the self-perception and self-representation of authors such as Olaudah Equiano, Ellen and William Craft, Frederick Douglass as well as the protagonists of films, e.g., The Color Purple this course will attempt to establish the conceptual limitations and advantages of the name—Slave Narratives—of the literary genre this course engages with.

Required readings are available in the Stud. IP