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Increased critical attention to Frederick Douglass Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass parallels the growth in interest in autobiography as a literary genre, and Douglass' Narrative as autobiography has been the subject of several influential studies. I would argue, however, that the achievement of the Narrative is best appreciated if it is read as a slave narrative.
Literary critics agree that autobiography comes into being when recollection engages memories of people and events from the writer's past that at first appear fragmented and unrelated. As an essential part of this activity, recollection brings sequence and relation to the enormous diversity of the writer's experience, and meaning emerges when events are connected as parts of a coherent and comprehensive whole. The self presented in an autobiography comes into being in the act of writing, not before.
In contrast, a signal feature of the slave narrative, a literary form unique to the United States, is the effect of the conditions of publication on content. During the nineteenth century, when the abolition of slavery was the central issue, printers and editors greatly influenced the content of slave narratives. Abolitionists such as Lundy and Garrison sought to expunge a vile institution rather than publish individualized histories. From Hammon's Narrative of 1760 to Jacob's Incidents in 1861, the explicit purpose of the slave narrative is far different from the creation of a self, and the shape of that story- the facts to be included and the ordering of those facts- is strongly influenced by persons other than the subject. Not personal recollection but abolitionist political concern brings order to details whose meaning, relation, and shape as a story exist before the narrative opens.
Viewing his story as a slave narrative may resolve some persistent questions about Douglass' Narrative: why its structure so resembles the structure of slave narratives and why Douglass subordinates so much of his emotional and intellectual life to the experiences of slavery and the quest for freedom through literacy. Douglass was clearly aware in 1845 of the conventions of the slave narrative, for he had referred to them in his antislavery lectures earlier. He realized that Garrison's agents publicized him as a representative fugitive slave and that he himself was an integral part of a network of clergy and politicians seeking to attract support for the abolitionist cause. However, he was also an individual who wanted to tell his own particular story. Douglass succeeds in resolving this dilemma by personalizing the slave narrative: he relates not only the workings of slavery as a system, but also his own personal experience in that system. As arresting today as in 1845, the Narrative is for this reason the most comprehensive account of slavery in the English language.
Literary critics agree that autobiography comes into being when recollection engages memories of people and events from the writer's past that at first appear fragmented and unrelated. As an essential part of this activity, recollection brings sequence and relation to the enormous diversity of the writer's experience, and meaning emerges when events are connected as parts of a coherent and comprehensive whole. The self presented in an autobiography comes into being in the act of writing, not before.
In contrast, a signal feature of the slave narrative, a literary form unique to the United States, is the effect of the conditions of publication on content. During the nineteenth century, when the abolition of slavery was the central issue, printers and editors greatly influenced the content of slave narratives. Abolitionists such as Lundy and Garrison sought to expunge a vile institution rather than publish individualized histories. From Hammon's Narrative of 1760 to Jacob's Incidents in 1861, the explicit purpose of the slave narrative is far different from the creation of a self, and the shape of that story- the facts to be included and the ordering of those facts- is strongly influenced by persons other than the subject. Not personal recollection but abolitionist political concern brings order to details whose meaning, relation, and shape as a story exist before the narrative opens.
Viewing his story as a slave narrative may resolve some persistent questions about Douglass' Narrative: why its structure so resembles the structure of slave narratives and why Douglass subordinates so much of his emotional and intellectual life to the experiences of slavery and the quest for freedom through literacy. Douglass was clearly aware in 1845 of the conventions of the slave narrative, for he had referred to them in his antislavery lectures earlier. He realized that Garrison's agents publicized him as a representative fugitive slave and that he himself was an integral part of a network of clergy and politicians seeking to attract support for the abolitionist cause. However, he was also an individual who wanted to tell his own particular story. Douglass succeeds in resolving this dilemma by personalizing the slave narrative: he relates not only the workings of slavery as a system, but also his own personal experience in that system. As arresting today as in 1845, the Narrative is for this reason the most comprehensive account of slavery in the English language.
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