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ties that bind: Harriet Jacobs's portrayal of her grandmother in Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself"

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Date Issued:
1995
Summary:
Although the relationship between Harriet Jacobs and her grandmother in Jacobs's slave narrative seems at first a simple case of maternal and filial love, closer examination reveals a complex and carefully crafted interaction between author, persona, and character. Jacobs's manumitted grandmother attempts to gain autonomy by emulating white models for behavior in a dominant white culture that nevertheless continues to exclude her. Although strongly influenced by her grandmother, Jacobs's persona, Linda Brent, learns to negotiate the power struggles of slavery by defining herself. The price Jacobs/Brent pays for gaining a voice is the disintegration of her and her grandmother's supportive relationship. Jacobs controls the narrative development of this relationship in order to represent her northern middle-class white women readers in her text. She represents her readers so as to both accommodate and criticize the social differences between women of different races and social standings.
Title: The ties that bind: Harriet Jacobs's portrayal of her grandmother in Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself".
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Name(s): Metzcher-Smith, Marilyn K.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Kurjiaka, Susan K. H., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1995
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 126 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Although the relationship between Harriet Jacobs and her grandmother in Jacobs's slave narrative seems at first a simple case of maternal and filial love, closer examination reveals a complex and carefully crafted interaction between author, persona, and character. Jacobs's manumitted grandmother attempts to gain autonomy by emulating white models for behavior in a dominant white culture that nevertheless continues to exclude her. Although strongly influenced by her grandmother, Jacobs's persona, Linda Brent, learns to negotiate the power struggles of slavery by defining herself. The price Jacobs/Brent pays for gaining a voice is the disintegration of her and her grandmother's supportive relationship. Jacobs controls the narrative development of this relationship in order to represent her northern middle-class white women readers in her text. She represents her readers so as to both accommodate and criticize the social differences between women of different races and social standings.
Identifier: 15189 (digitool), FADT15189 (IID), fau:11961 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1995.
Subject(s): Jacobs, Harriet A--(Harriet Ann),--1813-1897--Criticism and interpretation
Jacobs, Harriet A--(Harriet Ann),--1813-1897--Incidents in the life of a slave girl
Slavery--United States--Biography
Women slaves--United States--Biography
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15189
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.