[As another semester
concludes, a series recapping some of the wonderful texts we read in my
classes, along with some other Spring work of mine. Leading up to a preview of
coming attractions for the Summer and Fall semesters. I’d love to hear about
your work, past, present, or future, in comments!]
On three texts I
had never read until I had the chance to teach this class for the first time.
1)
Victor Séjour, “The Mulatto”
(1837): Séjour’s
short story, one of the first published works of fiction by an African American
author, is far from perfect; many of my students objected in particular to the
highly melodramatic ending. But from its multi-layered narration that
anticipates later local color writing (a white outside narrator visits an older
slave who then tells him the story that forms the bulk of the text) to its
complex psychological depiction of a trio of slave characters, and even to that
shocking and controversial but compelling final scene, Séjour’s story is both
ground-breaking and highly readable.
2)
Henry Highland Garnet, “An
Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” (1843): I wrote
about Garnet’s stunning and stirring speech in my
preview post, and when we finally had a chance to discuss it in class, I
wasn’t disappointed. Students found that whole week, which also featured David
Walker and Martin
Delany, to be one of the most interesting and inspiring of the semester,
and I’d have to agree. And Garnet’s speech, which more or less directly calls
for slave revolts and the violent overthrow of the system of slavery in
America, was particularly arresting and compelling for both the students and me
(having never read the whole thing until I was required to for this class).
3)
Elizabeth Keckley, Behind the
Scenes; or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868):
Like too many of us I suspect, I only began to learn about Keckley through her small but important role
(played by Gloria Reuben) in Steven
Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012). So I
was very glad to have the chance to read excerpts from her autobiography/slave
narrative for this class, and to learn a great deal more about both her
perspective and her
activist work (which the movie frustratingly omits entirely). The first
half or so of our class featured a large number of slave narratives, and I
worried at times about repetition; but in truth, each and every one of them was
unique and compelling in its own distinct ways. Keckley’s was no exception, and
I look forward to reading the whole of her book soon.
Next recap
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What have
you been or are you working on?
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