DOCSLIB.ORG

Disabled Women's Autobiography 1850-1950 A

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Disabled Women's Autobiography 1850-1950 A UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Talking Back: Disabled Women’s Autobiography 1850-1950 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Literature by Bailee Daniele Chandler Committee in charge: Professor Michael Davidson, Co-Chair Professor Rosaura Sanchez, Co-Chair Professor Gloria Chacon Professor Meg Wesling Professor Daniel Widener 2017 Copyright Bailee Daniele Chandler, 2017 All rights reserved The Dissertation of Bailee Daniele Chandler is approved, and is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Co-Chair Co-Chair University of California, San Diego 2017 iii Dedication I dedicate my dissertation to my family, friends, and colleagues that supported me throughout this journey. A special thanks to my partner, Ryan O’Connell, whose words of encouragement motivated me right up to the end. My appreciation goes out to my family, especially my parents for giving me the confidence and tenacity to be successful and my brother, Zachary, for his help formatting. I wish to thank my committee members for the generous support and expertise. A special thanks to my committee Co- Chairs, Dr. Rosaura Sanchez and Dr. Michael Davidson, for their encouragement and numerous hours spent proofreading, reflecting, and advising. Thank you Dr. Gloria Chacon, Dr. Meg Wesling, and Dr. Daniel Widener for agreeing to serve on my committee and for their expertise and guidance. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page…………………………………………………………………… iii Dedication………………………………………………………………………... iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………….………… v Vita………………………………………………………………………………. vi Abstract of the Dissertation………….………………………………………….. vii Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter One: Backbreaking Work: Race, Disability and Dependency in the Antebellum United States……………………………..………………………..... 15 Chapter Two: You Scratch My Back and I’ll Scratch Yours: Gender, Disability and Interdependency in the Progressive Era..…………….………………………….... 62 Chapter Three: Back-to-Back: Conjoined Twins and the Single Autobiographer………….………………………………………………………. 113 Bibliography.……………………..……………………………………………… 156 v VITA 2006 Bachelor of Arts, University of San Diego 2006-2007 High School English Teacher, Fusion Learning Center, San Diego, CA 2007-2010 Teaching Assistant, Miramar Community College, San Diego CA 2009 Master of Arts, San Diego State University 2012-2017 Teaching Assistant, Warren College Writing Program, University of California, San Diego 2017 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS “Intersections of Identity: Lesbian Autobiography in the United States.” San Diego State University Press, 2009. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Literature with an emphasis in Cultural Studies Studies in Disability Studies Professor Michael Davidson Studies in Chicana Literature Professor Rosaura Sanchez Studies in American Literature Professor Meg Wesling vi ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Talking Back: Disabled Women’s Autobiography 1850-1950 by Bailee Daniele Chandler Doctor of Philosophy in Literature University of California, San Diego, 2017 Professor Michael Davidson, Co-Chair Professor Rosaura Sanchez, Co-Chair Talking Back: Disabled Women’s Autobiography examines the life and writing of four disabled women in the United States from the antebellum period through the end of the Progressive Era. I examine how these women use autobiography to represent the intersections of disability with other identities such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and social positions such as enslavement and enfreakment. My methodology involves close readings of various genres of life writing including autobiographies, memoirs, dairies, vii letters, and filmic representations that are juxtaposed with popular representations of disabled people within historical contexts such as slavery, early medicine, and freak shows. From my investigation I have found that these women use autobiography to call into question the values of individualism that influence popular representations of disabled people as helpless, dependent, and pitiable. I argue these women challenge cultural conventions of independence and autonomy, including those that undergird the genre of autobiography. In doing so, these women offer important alternatives of disabled women as powerful and disruptive of traditional conventions. Chapter One examines issues of race and disability in Our Nig by Harriet Wilson, a black indentured servant in the antebellum north. I argue that Wilson challenges dominate proslavery and antislavery representations of disabled blacks and repositions dependency as a means to negotiate economic and social agency. Chapter Two investigates The Little Locksmith by Katherine Butler Hathaway, an upper class white woman that is bedridden with spinal tuberculosis. I argue Katherine complicates conceptions of dependent disabled women through interdependent relationships and offers an alternate model of reciprocity that challenges ideals of individualism and self- determinism. Chapter Three looks at the context of the early twentieth century freak show through The Loves and Lives of the Hilton Sisters, about conjoined twins, Daisy and Violet Hilton. The narrative points to the linguistic and generic attempts that are meant to norm and contain bodies within conventions of individualism. As conjoined twins, their embodiment challenges ideals of singular self-reliant individuals just as their narrative viii disrupts the linguistic and generic conventions meant to contain and explain their anomalous embodiment. ix Introduction Ah me! How long I have lain! Will Dawn never come o’er the hill? So shall I be lying again While drowsily beats the rain -Katherine Butler Hathaway “Villanelle” She has never enjoyed any degree of comfortable health since she was eighteen years of age, and a great deal of the time has been confined to her room and bed. She is now trying to write a book; and I hope the public will look favorably on it, and patronize the same. – Margaretta Thorn in Our Nig Disability narratives from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries give important insight into experiences of living with impairment and the issues of dependency that often characterize disabled people’s existence. As the above two epigraphs demonstrate, disability and attendant medical treatments often require long periods of bed rest. For example, the above stanza from Katherine Butler Hathaway’s poem, “Villanelle,” gives a glimpse into her ongoing periods of bed rest. The line, “So shall I by lying again,” is the continued refrain throughout Katherine’s 1 poem, emphasizing the frequent returns she made to bed rest. As a young child during the late nineteenth century, Katherine contracted spinal tuberculosis, a disease that infects joints and bones and often causes curvature of the spinal vertebrae. In an attempt to prevent spinal curvature, Progressive Era doctors used manual techniques such as strapping Katharine to a device known as a stretcher for over ten years. Treatments of this sort 1 Throughout this project I will refer to Katherine by her first name for clarity and consistency. The first person reference will be especially helpful in my third chapter, which follows Katherine throughout her life when she had “Butler” and “Hathaway” as surnames at different times. 1 2 continued throughout all of Katharine’s life and required that she frequently be bedridden and dependent upon caregivers to meet her needs. In American culture where values of individualism and self-reliance are operative, people with disabilities are often positioned as dependent and a burden to their families and the larger society. As such, disabled people are often precluded from roles of independence and autonomy that undergird American values of citizenship and popular notions of the self-determined man. Concepts of self-reliance and autonomy are perhaps most obviously seen in American work ethics. Ideals of hard work and the ability to “pull oneself up by the bootstraps” are common ideologies that permeate American culture and help make it the proverbial “land of opportunity.” Disability narratives reveal how impairment and illness often prevent disabled people from fulfilling typical work roles for a variety of reasons including bed rest. Yet as Margaretta Thorn’s above quote about Harriet Wilson shows, this does not mean that disabled people are completely unproductive. The autobiographies examined within this project, including Wilson’s Our Nig, complicate common conceptions of disability and dependency. Specifically, disability narratives call into question the values of individualism that influence popular representations of disabled people, including the singularity of life writing itself. Narrative is central to the cultural construction of disability and it also provides the means for disabled people to respond to such constructions. To begin, narrative is fundamental to how normates 2 make sense of disability. Lennard Davis notes the 2 “Normate” a term coined by Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is the figure through which able-bodied people are defined. Disability acts as the ideological antithesis to normates and thus shore up the able-bodied person’s normalcy. Ideals of individualism such as self-reliance and autonomy inform conceptions of the normate. In cultures where 3 importance of narrative to the construction of disability: “When one speaks of disability, one always associates it with a story, places it in a narrative. A person became
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Rush Family Papers Rush Finding Aid Prepared by Finding Aid Prepared by Holly Mengel
    Rush family papers Rush Finding aid prepared by Finding aid prepared by Holly Mengel. Last updated on September 02, 2020. Library Company of Philadelphia Rush family papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 7 Administrative Information......................................................................................................................... 14 Related Materials......................................................................................................................................... 15 Controlled Access Headings........................................................................................................................15 Other Finding Aids note..............................................................................................................................17 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 18 Series I. Benjamin Rush papers...........................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Rhetoric and Resistance in Black Women's Autobiography
    Rhetoric and Resistance in Black Women’s Autobiography Copyright 2003 by Johnnie M. Stover. This work is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No De- rivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You are free to electronically copy, distribute, and transmit this work if you attribute authorship. However, all printing rights are reserved by the University Press of Florida (http://www.upf.com). Please con- tact UPF for information about how to obtain copies of the work for print distribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permis- sion from the University Press of Florida. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the author’s moral rights. Florida A&M University, Tallahassee Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers Florida International University, Miami Florida State University, Tallahassee New College of Florida University of Central Florida, Orlando University of Florida, Gainesville University of North Florida, Jacksonville University of South Florida, Tampa University of West Florida, Pensacola Rhetoric and Resistance in Black Women’s Autobiography ° Johnnie M. Stover University Press of Florida Gainesville/Tallahassee/Tampa/Boca Raton Pensacola/Orlando/Miami/Jacksonville/Ft. Myers Copyright 2003 by Johnnie M.
    [Show full text]
  • Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence Table of Contents
    SIGNERS OF THE UNITED STATES DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 56 Men Who Risked It All Life, Family, Fortune, Health, Future Compiled by Bob Hampton First Edition - 2014 1 SIGNERS OF THE UNITED STATES DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTON Page Table of Contents………………………………………………………………...………………2 Overview………………………………………………………………………………...………..5 Painting by John Trumbull……………………………………………………………………...7 Summary of Aftermath……………………………………………….………………...……….8 Independence Day Quiz…………………………………………………….……...………...…11 NEW HAMPSHIRE Josiah Bartlett………………………………………………………………………………..…12 William Whipple..........................................................................................................................15 Matthew Thornton……………………………………………………………………...…........18 MASSACHUSETTS Samuel Adams………………………………………………………………………………..…21 John Adams………………………………………………………………………………..……25 John Hancock………………………………………………………………………………..….29 Robert Treat Paine………………………………………………………………………….….32 Elbridge Gerry……………………………………………………………………....…….……35 RHODE ISLAND Stephen Hopkins………………………………………………………………………….…….38 William Ellery……………………………………………………………………………….….41 CONNECTICUT Roger Sherman…………………………………………………………………………..……...45 Samuel Huntington…………………………………………………………………….……….48 William Williams……………………………………………………………………………….51 Oliver Wolcott…………………………………………………………………………….…….54 NEW YORK William Floyd………………………………………………………………………….………..57 Philip Livingston…………………………………………………………………………….….60 Francis Lewis…………………………………………………………………………....…..…..64 Lewis Morris………………………………………………………………………………….…67
    [Show full text]
  • Pennsylvania Magazine of HISTORY and BIOGRAPHY
    THE Pennsylvania Magazine OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY John Swanwick: Spokesman for "Merchant-Republicanism ' In Philadelphia, 1790-179 8 HE literature on the era of Jeffersonian democracy is largely- dominated by the great triumvirate of Thomas Jefferson, TJames Madison, and Albert Gallatin.* During the last dec- ade, however, historians have been paying more attention to state and local political leaders who played significant roles in the Demo- cratic-Republican movement.1 Among the more notable second-rank * In a somewhat abbreviated form this article was presented as a paper at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Historical Association held at Williamsport, Pa., on Oct. 22-23, 1971. The author wishes to express his gratitude to his colleague, Bernard Sternsher, for his helpful editorial suggestions. 1 Historians have given most of their attention to secondary Federalists, but since i960 the number of modern scholarly biographies of less prominent Republicans has increased. We now have first-rate biographies on Robert R. Livingston, David Rittenhouse, Aaron Burr, Daniel D. Tompkins, John Breckinridge, Luther Martin, Benjamin Rush (2), Samuel Smith, and James Monroe. There are also a number of good unpublished doctoral dissertations. Among the more notable studies are those on Elkanah Watson, Simon Snyder, Mathew Carey, Samuel Latham Mitchell, Melancton Smith, Levi Woodbury, William Lowndes, William Duane, William Jones (2), Eleazer Oswald, Thomas McKean, Levi Lincoln, Ephraim Kirby, and John Nicholson. Major biographies of Tench Coxe by Jacob E. Cooke, of John Beckley by Edmund Berkeley, and of Thomas McKean by John M. Coleman and Gail Stuart Rowe are now in progress. 131 132 ROLAND M.
    [Show full text]
  • The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective Author(S): Edith R
    The Hamitic Hypothesis; Its Origin and Functions in Time Perspective Author(s): Edith R. Sanders Source: The Journal of African History, Vol. 10, No. 4 (1969), pp. 521-532 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179896 . Accessed: 08/05/2014 00:32 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of African History. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.95.104.66 on Thu, 8 May 2014 00:32:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Journal of African History, x, 4 (I969), pp. 521-532 521 Printed in Great Britain THE HAMITIC HYPOTHESIS; ITS ORIGIN AND FUNCTIONS IN TIME PERSPECTIVE1 BY EDITH R. SANDERS THE Hamitic hypothesis is well-known to students of Africa. It states that everything of value ever found in Africa was brought there by the Hamites, allegedlya branchof the Caucasianrace. Seligmanformulates it as follows: Apart from relatively late Semitic influence... the civilizationsof Africa are the civilizations of the
    [Show full text]
  • Final Dissertation
    SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... From the Plantation Zone: The Poetics of a Black Matrilineal Genealogy for the Americas A Dissertation Presented by Eileen S. Chanza Torres to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Department (Transamerican Studies) Stony Brook University May 2013 Copyright by Eileen S. Chanza Torres 2013 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Eileen S. Chanza Torres We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Susan Scheckel – Dissertation Advisor Associate Professor, English Department E. Anthony Hurley – Dissertation Advisor Chair, Africana Studies Department Helen M. Cooper – Chairperson of Defense Emerita Professor, English Department Dawn P. Harris – Outside Reader Assistant Professor, Africana Studies Department This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Interim Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation From the Plantation Zone: The Poetics of a Black Matrilineal Genealogy for the Americas by Eileen S. Chanza Torres Doctor of Philosophy in English (Transamerican Studies) Stony Brook University 2013 In the Humanities, studies on the legacy of enslaved Black women are often split along ethnic, cultural, linguistic and national lines. My dissertation brings together literatures and visual arts from Puerto Rico, Martinique, Suriname, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. representing a myriad of linguistic and cultural traditions that turn to the legacy of the historical Black female body as their myth of creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Dr. James Durham, ^Mysterious 8Ighteenth-Century 'Black 'Physician: *Man Or Zmyth?
    Dr. James Durham, ^Mysterious 8ighteenth-Century 'Black 'Physician: *Man or zMyth? ITTLE is known about him, not even the year of his birth for certain, though it is believed to be 1762, while the date of his I-« death is even more elusive. No record of it has been found. Yet, James Durham, who was born a slave in Philadelphia, has been called America's first black physician;1 for several years he practiced medicine in New Orleans; and he was a friend and corre- spondent of Benjamin Rush, America's best-known physician and medical scientist of that day. But John Duffy, a leading authority on the history of medicine, and the acknowledged authority on the history of medicine in Louisiana, has bluntly written: "This illustri- ous black physician may have practiced in Philadelphia or in some other city—but not in New Orleans."2 Duffy bases this statement upon the fact that Spanish records for the period when Durham was in New Orleans make no mention of a Dr. Durham, and the Spanish were very meticulous about the examination and licensing of physicians. On the other hand, Duffy concedes that those same records do mention "a free black called 'Derum/ " who, not having completed the regular examinations, had "the right only to cure throat disease and no other."3 It is true that down through the years the story of this black 1 See, e.g., Richard Bardolph, The Negro Vanguard (New York, 1961), 30, and Peter M. Bergman, The Chronological History of the Negro in America (New York, 1969), 41.
    [Show full text]
  • The Republican Theology of Benjamin Rush
    THE REPUBLICAN THEOLOGY OF BENJAMIN RUSH By DONALD J. D'ELIA* A Christian [Benjamin Rush argued] cannot fail of be- ing a republican. The history of the creation of man, and of the relation of our species to each other by birth, which is recorded in the Old Testament, is the best refuta- tion that can be given to the divine right of kings, and the strongest argument that can be used in favor of the original and natural equality of all mankind. A Christian, I say again, cannot fail of being a republican, for every precept of the Gospel inculcates those degrees of humility, self-denial, and brotherly kindness, which are directly opposed to the pride of monarchy and the pageantry of a court. D)R. BENJAMIN RUSH was a revolutionary in his concep- tions of history, society, medicine, and education. He was also a revolutionary in theology. His age was one of universality, hle extrapolated boldly from politics to religion, or vice versa, with the clear warrant of the times.1 To have treated religion and politics in isolation from each other would have clashed with his analogical disposition, for which he was rightly famous. "Dr. D'Elia is associate professor of history at the State University of New York College at New Paltz. This paper was read at a session of the annual meeting of the Association at Meadville, October 9, 1965. 1Basil Willey, The Eighteenth Century Background; Studies on the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period (Boston: Beacon Press, 1961), p. 137 et passim.
    [Show full text]
  • THE POLITICAL THOUGHT of BENJAMIN RUSH by PAUL FRANK
    THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF BENJAMIN RUSH By PAUL FRANK ,,LAMBERT Bachelor of Arts in Education East Central State College Ada, Oklahoma 1968 S~bmitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS May, 1971 THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF BENJAMIN RUSH Thesis Approved : ii PREFACE This thesis is concerned with illustrating and examining the political thought of Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia. Rush, the ·' most famous Anierican physician of his day, moved within the circle of such men as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and n~merous other luminaries of that era. Furthermore, his adult life spanned the period from the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765 to the War of 1812. His importance notwithstanding, Ru~h has not been studied thoroughly by historians, and his political thought is only one facet of this versatile and i;ignificant individual t;hat has been neglected. Many people come to mind while contemplating the debts of grati­ tude I owe regarding this thesis. Some were not immediately involved in the project. In this category, I must include my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Lambert of Tishomingo, Oklahoma, whose encouragement over the years has been instrumental in my educational achievements to date. Thanks is also due a number of professors, both at East Central State College, Ada, Oklahoma, and at Oklahoma State University, who have inspired me to further my professional training. A special acknowledgment should also be extended to the staff of the Oklahoma State Vniversity Library for their willing assistance in my research p~oblems.
    [Show full text]
  • Harriet E. Wilson's Our
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE HARRIET E. WILSON’S OUR NIG: A TRIAL FOR WRITING “MY OWN STORY” II Keiko Noguchi I. Neither of the two key elements of the domestic novel, marriage and home, is given to the heroine of Our Nig. The “true womanhood” with its emphasis on piety, purity, obedience, and domesticity1 is either unavailable to, or unable to support, a black woman in a patriarchal racist society based on slavery rules. The problem, then, focuses on the way how the heroine establishes herself in such a hostile society. One of the cheif themes of the story, in fact, lies in Frado’s struggle to acquire independence. According to Harryette Mullen, nineteenth- century black women writers strived to incorporate “an oral tradition of resistance” into their literature, since the two traditional literary forms available to them, the male slave narrative and the white female sentimental fiction, are inadequate to express their experience (245). They assert oral power of black women to resist the oppressors and to insist upon their selfhood, while male writers of slave narratives underscore the physical power to attain manhood as Douglass does in the scene of his fight with Mr. Covey. When submission and self-effacement were endorsed as female virtues, black women resorted to “orality”—talking back, arguing, or revealing secrets of their masters, all of which were regarded as “saucy” or “impudent” by the ruling class—to surface their voice and thereby to establish their identity (Mullen 245-46)2. II.
    [Show full text]
  • African American Childhood and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1850S-1900)
    BREWINGTON, PAULETTE YVONNE, Ph.D. Wild, Willful, and Wicked: African American Childhood and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination (1850s-1900). (2013) Directed by Dr. Karen A. Weyler. 249 pp. This dissertation examines nineteenth-century depictions of African American children in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Frank J. Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends (1857), and Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig (1859). It explores Stowe’s characters as wild, willful, and unruly minstrel-inspired comic figures further exaggerated with nineteenth-century stereotypes such as: shiftlessness, ignorance heathenism, and demonism. Both novels of Webb and Wilson serve as respondents to Stowe’s creations. Frank J. Webb presents industrious, educated children whose pranks are born out of self-possession. Wilson, on the other hand, illustrates that for the African American child in servitude in the free North, hardship and violence can rival that of the slave-holding South. WILD, WILLFUL, AND WICKED: AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERARY IMAGINATION (1850S-1900) by Paulette Yvonne Brewington A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2013 Approved by ____________________________ Committee Chair © 2013 Paulette Yvonne Brewington APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the following committee of the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Committee Chair ______________________________________ Committee Members ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ______________________________________ ___________________________ Date of Acceptance by Committee _________________________ Date of Final Oral Examination ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................v CHAPTER I.
    [Show full text]
  • OUR NIG, by HARRIET E. WILSON: Frado and the Characterization Of
    OUR NIG, BY HARRIET E. WILSON: Frado and the characterization of oppression Eliza de Souza Silva Araújo (*) Liane Schneider(**) Resumo Em sua autobiografia em terceira pessoa Our Nig, Harriet E. Wilson conta sua história de opressões que sofreu quando morou na casa de uma família do norte dos Estados Unidos, onde se violenta e denigre a mulata quando criança. Com base nos pressupostos de Crenshaw sobre intersectionality e de Joan Scot e Michele Wallace sobre as implicações históricas e de gênero buscamos compreender o contexto e condição da protagonista, além das intenções buscadas com a contação dessa história. Palavras-chave: Our Nig. Opressão. Intersectionality. Raça. Gênero. OUR NIG, POR HARRIET E. WILSON: Frado e a caracterização da opressão Abstract In her autobiography Our Nig, written in the third person, Harriet E. Wilson tells the story of the oppressions she suffers when she lived at a family house in the North of the US, where she undergoes violence and denigration. Based on Crenchaw’s accounts on intersectionality and Joan Scott and Michele Wallace’s propositions on historical implications and gender, we aim at understanding the context and condition of the protagonist, besides her intentions in telling her story. Key-words: Our Nig. Oppression. Intersectionality. Race. Gender. Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig; or, Sketches from the life of a free black, in a two- story white house, North. Showing that slavery’s shadows fall even there (1859) is a work (*) Pós-graduanda em Literatura no Programa de Pós-Graduação de Letras da UFPB; pesquisadora de literatura em língua inglesa com interesse nas temáticas de gênero e raça.
    [Show full text]