Narratives of Enslavement

Catalog description

Widely dispersed narratives by and about enslaved persons are our focus. We'll explore the concept of 'slave narrative' by comparing texts from the ancient Mediterranean, the Cape of Good Hope, West Africa and the United States. We'll consider famous autobiographies alongside less familiar material such as court trial records. What are the affordances, what are the limits of such narratives as historical evidence? What notions of enslaved experience emerge? How close can we come to understanding the experiences of the enslaved? How different do such experiences seem when compared across time and space? Note: graduates and advanced undergraduates wishing to read original Greek and Latin texts should register for Reading Greek and Roman Slavery (Classics 142/242) in addition.