LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature

Web Highlight, fall 2007

Gordon Lewis

Web Highlight – Midterms –African American Literature

Take-home midterm exam (due 27 September):

Describe and analyze one or more literary and/or cultural aspects of the minority experience as represented by our readings in African American Literature.  You must refer to at least two of the slave narratives . . . .  Your midterm should make reference to at least one previous student midterm

Objective 1 -   “To define the “minority concept” as a power relationship . . . .”

Objective 1a – “Involuntary participation-the American Nightmare . . . .”

Objective 1b – “Voiceless and choiceless;”

Objective 1c – “ To observe alternative identities and literary strategies . . . .”

Objective 1d – “The Color Code”

Objective 2 -  “To observe representations and narrative of ethnicity, gender, & class . . .”

Objective 3 -   “To compare & contrast the “American Dream narrative . . . .”

Objective 4 -   “minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance . .  . .”

Objective 5 -   “Study influence of minority writers and speakers . . . .”

Objective 6 -   “Observe images of the individual, the family & alternative families . . . .”

Karen Daniel, in her midterm essay, “The Passing Trend of Color Lines” writes,

. . . color is seen as indicative of the worth and value of everything . . . .  Black is consistently seen as evil, while the whiter things are, the more purity they are perceived as possessing.  We find bad and evil in all things dark; even something as innocent and benign as a black cat is seen as dangerous and predictive of bad luck.  . . . white . . . is seen as virtuous and godlike.    . . . authors use shades of color to distinguish between levels of privilege, lawfulness, intelligence, and worth, and the characters’ acceptance of their color as a signifier of a greater sense of self-worth and racial identity.

Anuruddha Ellakkala, in the essay, “Can Literacy Dissolve a Slave’s Chains?” begins with a Quote from Horace Mann,

“Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men,—the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” Douglass and Equiano are the earliest African Americans who had proven this truth.  there is a remedy for Douglass. The remedy is literacy.  Mr. Auld knew that, and he warned his wife:

“If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him.” Auld’s words enlightened Douglass’ mind.  “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom”.   Douglass realizes that illiteracy is "the white man’s power to enslave the black man".

like Douglass, Equiano recognizes the power of learning language.  Equiano explains, “I had long wished to be able to read and write; and for this purpose I took every opportunity to gain instruction”.  for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and talked to it, and then put my ears to it, in hopes it would answer me.”

Giselle Hewitt

Giselle Hewitt writes in her essay, “Sexual Objectification and Empowerment Through Sexuality of African American Women in Literature,”  

Minorities are defined  due to their initial relationship with the dominant culture.  African American women have exposed how being a “double minority” changes their identity as a minority.  African American’s original “social contract” with the dominant culture was one of “forced participation” and their initial relationship with the dominant culture was as property, while African American women were further lowered in their status as property to being used as sexual objects by their owners.  In Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, she explains the added burden female slaves had to endure by their masters. 

A theme of sexual objectification is consistent for African American women in literature.  Instead of being sexual slaves of their “masters”, though, many African American women post-slavery have been turned into “prisoners” in their own homes due to their sex, According to a survey in The Impossible Dilemma an article published in The New Republic, “In 1992… young black females (largely as the result of sexual assault) were 70 percent more likely then their white counterparts… to be victims of crimes.”

Objectification has created a subsidiary, servile role for women and robbed them of their voice.  The loss of voice, is a common characteristic of minority groups, In Slave Girl, Jacobs showed a direct loss of voice through her “master” who “may treat you as rudely as he pleases, and you dare not speak”

As with all minority groups the “dilemma” of “assimilation or resistance” comes into play for African American women.  They must ask themselves whether they will “fight or join” the role that has been placed on them by those around them.  Harriet Jacobs’ power comes from choosing which white man to have her children with

Danielle Lynch-Masterson, continues this theme in her essay, “Sexual Oppression within Double Minorities in African American Literature.”  She writes,

Throughout history, evidence of sexual oppression is shown in African American literature to the extent that it becomes a defining characteristic of the genre.  In Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, we are introduced to the double minority.  The story is riddled with sexual oppression, making the double minority status of African American women downright dangerous.