American Romanticism
Student-led Text-Objective Discussion 2008

Thursday 16 October: Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, N 804-825. Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life . . . , N 920-991.

text-objective discussion leader: Cory Owens

Objective 1a. Romantic Spirit or Ideology
To identify and criticize ideas or attitudes associated with Romanticism, such as desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, the gothic, the sublime, the individual in nature or separate from the masses.

Romance narrative: A desire for anything besides "the here and now" or "reality," the Romantic impulse, quest, or journey involves crossing physical borders or transgressing social or psychological boundaries in order to attain or regain some transcendent goal or dream.

Objective 1c: Romantic Genres
the romance narrative or novel (journey from repression to transcendence)

Objective 2: Cultural Issues

2c. Racially divided but historically related "Old and New Canons" of Romantic literature

African American: from the Slave Narratives of Douglass and Jacobs to the Harlem Renaissance of Hughes, Hurston, and Cullen

Harriet Jacobs (ca 1813-1897)--First African American woman to have authored a slave narrative in the US.

"I was born a slave; but I never knew it till six years of happy childhood had passed away....though we were all slaves, I was so fondly shielded that I never dreamed I was a piece of merchandise..." N 805
 

"Those were happy days--too happy to last.  The slave child had no thought for the morrow; but there came that blight, which too surely waits on every human being born to be chattel."  N 807
 

"With me the lamp of hope had gone out.  The dream of my girlhood was over." N 811

"Reader, my story ends with freedom; not in the usual way, with marriage." N825

Frederick Douglass (ca 1818-1895)--Most influential African-American in the 19 century.

"Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extend, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger." N932
 

"Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy  The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears." N937
 

"Her face was made of heavenly smiles and her voice of tranquil music. . . .That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made of all sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord; and that angelic face gave place to that of a demon." N945
 

"This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.  It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free."  N963
 

"I now come to that part of my life during which I planned, and finally succeeded in making, my escape from slavery." N975

Questions

1.  How do the slave narratives of rebellion and journeys compare to other Romantic pieces that we've read this semester?  How do slave narratives seem counter-intuitive to the assumed definitions of Romantic pieces?  (Refer to Objective 1c)
 

2.  Since these two slave narratives are written by different genders, which is more effective in conveying the plight of slaves?  Is one more adept at embracing the definitions of Romanticism?
 

3.  In comparison to other Romantic texts that we've read so far, why do you think these texts are so enduring?  Is it the subject matter, the writing style, or something else?