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    Comparison of Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Octavia Butler's Kindred

    Number of Pages: 5

     

    Summary of the research paper:

    In five pages the similarities of these slave type narratives are evaluated on several points including which one will be considered as the work with the greatest longevity. There are no other sources listed.

    Name of Research Paper File: TG15_TGslave.rtf

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    most lasting legacy of the slave narratives. No additional sources are used. TGslave.rtf A Comparative Analysis of "Kindred" and "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"  , For - May 2001 -- properly! Slavery is an ugly chapter in  American history that was not forever closed by the Emancipation Proclamation. The scars remain today as deep within the slave descendents as they do within Americas social psyche.  In terms of literature, the most compelling consideration of this appalling time are the slave narratives, some of which were written by one-time slaves, and the interpretations of slavery from  contemporary African-American authors, many of whose ancestors had been slaves. Octavia Butlers novel, Kindred, first published in 1979, was reminiscent of the nineteenth-century slave narratives. There can be  little doubt that Butlers text was strongly influenced by Harriet Jacobs (who wrote under the pseudonym of Linda Brent), whose 1861 novel, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,  was based on her personal experiences as a slave in North Carolina. The topics of being born and raised into slavery are discussed in both novels, from a feminine  perspective. Furthermore, the perception of people as human chattel is examined, as is the role of a patriarchal American Southern society. In both novels, images of oppression are  everywhere, in master and slave, black and white, men and women. There are also images of confinement, within the inner sanctum of slavery and within the exterior of American  society. While the topics and images featured in each novel are quite similar, the literary devices used are somewhat different. Butler employed surrealism, via time travel, to shed 

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