Kindred Genres

1. Kindred Genres Slave Narrative

2. Genres in Kindred • Science Fiction? • Fantasy? (“Grim Fantasy” – Butler) • Historical Fiction? • Neo-Slave Narrative? • “new” slave narrative • Account of ante-bellum slavery in 1st person, but written in contemporary times – author relies on research, firsthand slave narratives, imagination, historical documents, etc. to CREATE a narrative • This is considered fiction (a novel) rather than “non-fiction” or “memoir” (actual slave narratives)

3. Slave Narratives • Written by slaves who had escaped to the North • Significant part of the abolitionist movement • Drew on Biblical Allusion, graphic imagery, traditions of the captivity narrative, spiritual autobiography • Written for mostly white audiences • Expose the evils of slavery and galvanize support for abolition movement (in the 1820s-1850s) • Approx 65 slave narratives published before 1865 • From 1760-1947, more than 200 published

4. Slave Narratives – general pattern • Abruptly brought from state of protected innocence to confrontation with the evil of slavery and captivity • Dehumanized at hands of slavery • Tries to resist, but fails • Balances yearning for freedom against perils of escape (yearning for freedom generally grows with self-reliance due to education, slave-led religion, or exposure to escape networks) • Sees his/her condition as a symbol of the suffering condition of all lowly and oppressed • Grows in moral and spiritual strength as result of suffering • Major trigger or terror – gains new resolve to resist/escape despite former setbacks • Fight or escape and journey to redemption (NORTH) • Generally must establish credibility as the real author of the narrative (audiences may not believe them)

5. Kindred as neo-slave narrative • Narrator (Dana) is a 20th century woman travelling back to slavery – complicates the traditional slave narrative AND the neo-slave narrative tradition.