Analysis of the Racial Discourse and Gender Oppression in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

مقالات آماده انتشار

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسنده

دانشیار زبانشناسی کاربردی، دانشگاه امام صادق تهران

چکیده

This study examines the discourse of race and slavery in a seminal work by Harriet Jacobs entitled Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, focusing on how the text critiques the intersections of race, gender, and power in nineteenth-century American society. Through an African-American analysis of Harriet Jacobs’s personal narrative, the present study highlights the racial and gendered oppression that African-American women endured under slavery. Themes such as sexual exploitation, social humiliation, and the disintegration of family structures are emphasized within the context of the slave system. By analyzing Jacobs’s resistance to inhumane systems of racial and sexual domination, the current study demonstrates how her narrative contests racist and sexist ideologies. Furthermore, the text foregrounds motherhood as both a locus of suffering and a site of resistance for enslaved women. In doing so, it situates Jacobs’s work as a vital intervention in both abolitionist discourse and early feminist thought.

کلیدواژه‌ها

عنوان مقاله [English]

Analysis of the Racial Discourse and Gender Oppression in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

نویسنده [English]

  • Mohammad Amin Mozaheb
Associate Professor, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran , Iran
چکیده [English]

This study explores the complex discourse surrounding race and slavery as portrayed in Harriet Jacobs’s seminal work, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It delves into how Jacobs’s narrative critiques the intertwined forces of race, gender, and power operating in nineteenth-century American society. Through a careful analysis of Jacobs’s firsthand account, the study highlights the dual oppressions faced by African American women under slavery, emphasizing the compounded nature of racial and gendered subjugation. Key themes addressed include the pervasive sexual exploitation of enslaved women, the social degradation they suffered, and the destructive effects of slavery on family cohesion and stability.
The present study also examines Jacobs’s acts of defiance and resilience, revealing how her story serves as a powerful challenge to the prevailing racist and sexist ideologies of her time. It foregrounds the significance of motherhood as both a profound source of pain and a crucial locus of resistance for enslaved women, illustrating how maternal bonds inspired forms of survival and insurgency. Furthermore, the current study situates Jacobs’s narrative within a broader historical and intellectual context by tracing its influence on the development of civil rights and Black feminist movements in the late twentieth century. In particular, it acknowledges the role her text played in shaping the theoretical foundations of groups such as the Combahee River Collective, which fought against intersecting systems of racial and gender oppression.
Overall, this study offers a nuanced understanding of how Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl not only reveals the harsh realities of slavery but also amplifies the voices of enslaved Black women as agents of resistance and social change. It underscores the enduring legacy of Jacobs’s work in advocating for justice and equality across intersecting axes of identity and power.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Female Resistance
  • Racism
  • Female Authority
  • Slave Narrative
  • Harriet Jacobs
  • Incidents of the Life of a Slave Girl

مراجع

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Andrews, William. Slavery and Class in the American South. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2019.
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Carby, Hazel. Reconstructing Womanhood. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989.
Christian, Barbara. “The Race for Theory.” Cultural Critique 6 (Spring 1987): 51–63.
Davis, Angela. Modern Motherhood: Women and Family in England, 1945–2000. Manchester: Manchester UP, 2012.
Davis, Angela. Women, Race, & Class. New York: Vintage Books, 2011.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007.
Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. “My Statue, My Self: Autobiographical Writings of Afro-American Women.” Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Meridian, 1990.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism. 25th anniversary ed. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2014.
Hartman, Saidiya. Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Norton, 2022.
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race.” Signs 17.2 (1992): 251–74.
Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Eds. Nellie Y. McKay and Frances Smith Foster. New York: Norton, 2001.
Li, Stephanie. “Motherhood as Resistance in Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” Legacy 26.1 (2006): 14–29.
White, Deborah G. Ain’t I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York: Norton, 1998.
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مقالات آماده انتشار، پذیرفته شده
انتشار آنلاین از تاریخ 01 مهر 1404

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