Este trabalho, tendo como objeto de investigação as narrativas dos abolicionistas Luiz Gama (1830-1882) e Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), pretende evidenciar a maneira como os aspectos linguísticos e semióticos se articulam nos processos de projeção discursiva do eu e de construção discursiva identitária, bem como demonstrar a maneira como cada enunciador apresenta suas escolhas discursivas por meio dos procedimentos de tematização e figurativização. Assim sendo, temos como uma das principais intenções contribuir para a ampliação de visões e perspectivas, teóricas e analíticas, acerca dos escritos de ex-escravizados. Por conseguinte, a linha teórica norteadora deste trabalho é a Semiótica Discursiva de linha francesa. Essa perspectiva, de origem estruturalista, tem como foco o estudo, a reflexão e a análise da estrutura interna do texto. Concebida como a teoria geral da significação, a Semiótica ocupa-se dos processos de articulação discursiva que promovem a construção dos efeitos de sentido dos textos. Com isso, o corpus selecionado para a execução da pesquisa foi composto pelos seguintes textos: o poema Quem sou eu? (1861), a Carta a Lúcio de Mendonça (1880), ambos de autoria de Luiz Gama, e Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), escrita por Frederick Douglass / In this work, we take as object of investigation the narratives of the abolitionists Luiz Gama (1830-1882), Brazilian, and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), American. Thus, we intend to evidence the way as the linguistic and semiotic aspects are articulated in the processes of discursive projection of the self and discursive construction of identity, as well as to demonstrate the way each enunciator presents his discursive choices through the thematization and figurativization processes. So, one of our main intentions is to contribute to the expansion of theoretical and analytical visions and perspectives, on the narrative of ex-enslaved. Consequently, the theoretical framework of this work is Discursive Semiotics. This perspective takes into account the study, reflection and analysis of the internal structure of the text. Conceived as the general theory of signification, Semiotics is engaged in the processes of discursive articulation that promote the construction of the meaning effects of the texts. Therewith, the corpus selected for this research comprises the poem Quem sou eu? [Who am I?] (1861), Carta a Lúcio de Mendonça [Letter to Lúcio de Mendonça] (1880), both written by Luiz Gama, and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), written by himself

Este trabalho, tendo como objeto de investigação as narrativas dos abolicionistas Luiz Gama (1830-1882) e Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), pretende evidenciar a maneira como os aspectos linguísticos e semióticos se articulam nos processos de projeção discursiva do eu e de construção discursiva identitária, bem como demonstrar a maneira como cada enunciador apresenta suas escolhas discursivas por meio dos procedimentos de tematização e figurativização. Assim sendo, temos como uma das principais intenções contribuir para a ampliação de visões e perspectivas, teóricas e analíticas, acerca dos escritos de ex-escravizados. Por conseguinte, a linha teórica norteadora deste trabalho é a Semiótica Discursiva de linha francesa. Essa perspectiva, de origem estruturalista, tem como foco o estudo, a reflexão e a análise da estrutura interna do texto. Concebida como a teoria geral da significação, a Semiótica ocupa-se dos processos de articulação discursiva que promovem a construção dos efeitos de sentido dos textos. Com isso, o corpus selecionado para a execução da pesquisa foi composto pelos seguintes textos: o poema Quem sou eu? (1861), a Carta a Lúcio de Mendonça (1880), ambos de autoria de Luiz Gama, e Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), escrita por Frederick Douglass / In this work, we take as object of investigation the narratives of the abolitionists Luiz Gama (1830-1882), Brazilian, and Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), American. Thus, we intend to evidence the way as the linguistic and semiotic aspects are articulated in the processes of discursive projection of the self and discursive construction of identity, as well as to demonstrate the way each enunciator presents his discursive choices through the thematization and figurativization processes. So, one of our main intentions is to contribute to the expansion of theoretical and analytical visions and perspectives, on the narrative of ex-enslaved. Consequently, the theoretical framework of this work is Discursive Semiotics. This perspective takes into account the study, reflection and analysis of the internal structure of the text. Conceived as the general theory of signification, Semiotics is engaged in the processes of discursive articulation that promote the construction of the meaning effects of the texts. Therewith, the corpus selected for this research comprises the poem Quem sou eu? [Who am I?] (1861), Carta a Lúcio de Mendonça [Letter to Lúcio de Mendonça] (1880), both written by Luiz Gama, and Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), written by himself

This thesis asserts that the slave narratives are a significant resource for philosophers. Following Lewis Gordon, I argue that the slave narratives should not be understood merely as experiential evidence by which to validate Western thought. Instead, the narratives should be read as moments in which Black narrators shared their unique insights on the Western world. In line with Angela Davis, I argue that these critiques are still relevant to philosophers of this day and age. However, I argue that Davis' Marxist reading of Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is still vulnerable to Gordon's criticism. Using the narrative Olaudah Equiano, I demonstrate that by reading the slave narratives as expressing unique thoughts, philosophers can discover new resources to invigorate their philosophical inquiries.

Slave narratives influenced nineteenth-century American religious culture and history; through the slave narrative, modern readers experience the African-American struggle for freedom and personhood in the antebellum South. While the slave narrative stimulated identity- formation, once identity was formed a narrator fought for authority and control of that identity throughout their narrative. This struggle for control is present in the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Nat Turner. Due to each slave’s religious allusions, African-American literary scholars repeatedly link Douglass and Turner to biblical books such as Jonah and Ezekiel. However, this thesis will examine Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, Written by Himself, and Thomas R. Gray’s The Confessions of Nat Turner through the lens of the Book of Job. By examining Douglass’s and Turner’s pursuit of knowledge through correlations within the Book of Job, both scriptural authority and authenticity emerges within each narrative.

Prophet Muhammad stated, “A white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.” Because of the continual idea of race as a social construct, this study examines the memoirs of Douglass, Jacobs and Malcolm X, as it relates to the narrative of self and identity. They have written their personal autobiographies utilizing diction as a tool that develops their art of storytelling about their distinct life journeys. These protagonists utilize their autobiographical experiences to construct a generational transference of race and identity from when Douglass was born in 1818, to Jacob’s escape to freedom in 1838 to the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965. Historically, the texts are written from where slavery was still an institution until it was abolished in 1865, proceeding through to the Civil Rights movement. Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs and Malcolm X will experience racial trauma throughout their personal narratives that were life-altering events that severely influenced them as they matured from adolescence to adulthood. The writer has determined that, “Racial trauma can be chracterized as being physically and or psychologically damaged because of one’s race or skin color that permanently has long lasting negative effects on an individual’s thoughts, behavior or emotions,” i.e., African American victims of police brutality are racially traumatized because they suffer with behavioral problems and stress, after their encounters. This case study is based on the definition of race as a social construct for Douglass, Jacobs and Malcolm X’s narratives that learn to self-identify beyond the restrictions of racial discrimination which eventually manifests into white oppression in a world that does not readily embrace them. Their autobiographies provide self-reflection and a broad comprehension about how and why they were entrenched by race. Douglass, Jacobs and Malcolm X were stereotyped, socially segregated, and internalized awareness of despair because of their race. Conclusions drawn from Frederick Douglass-Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: American Slave, Harriet Jacobs-Incidences of a Slave Girl, and Malcolm X’s- Autobiography of Malcolm X will exemplify the subject of African American narrators countering racism and maneuvering in society.

Published in November 1877, Black Beauty is one of the most popular and enduring works of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book, in which the eponymous narrator relates his life's story, sold well following its publication in England and in the United States; by 1985, sales were estimated at over forty million. While usually regarded as entertaining, Black Beauty has a strong crusading purpose: Anna Sewell herself said she wrote to improve the treatment of horses. This study springs from an intuitive notion. While reading the 1845 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, I could not shake a "curiously different sense of familiarity" that took me home to my well-worn copy of Black Beauty. The more I explored a relationship between Douglass's Narrative and Black Beauty, the more apparent it became that these two works were interrelated in ways that had yet to be explored in critical literature. Although comparisons between animals and slaves have long been made-slaves themselves recognized and used such comparisons-the relationship between animal autobiography and the slave narrative has only recently been recognized. In 1994 Moira Ferguson sketched several commonalities between the two genres. In 2003 Tess Cosslett made an explicit-if brief-comparison of the animal autobiography and the slave narrative, a comparison developed in depth in her 2006 study Talking Animals in British Children's Literature 1786-1914. This thesis investigates that relationship further. It begins by briefly reviewing generic criticism, moves to a consideration of the various genres into which critics have placed Black Beauty, and then examines the text as a slave narrative, focusing upon James Olney's 1985 discussion of the conventions of the slave narrative. Finally, it considers Elizabeth W. Bruss's study of autobiographical acts as a literary genre for additional areas that establish my original "sense of familiarity." In short, this thesis confirms Black Beauty's rhetorical, formal, thematic, and social power within the genre of the American antebellum slave narrative.

This paper looks at three significant instances of the representation of abolitionist martyrdom in nineteenth-century America to first sketch the abolitionist discourse and its varied conceptualizations of martyrdom and second question the rationale and success of this strategy for manumitting slaves. Accordingly, I start with Brown, who (with help from sympathetic northerners and the megaphone of the Associated Press) appealed to the martyrological tradition in order to transform his paramilitary failure at Harper’s Ferry into a powerful symbol of his own abolitionist righteousness over and against the state’s iniquity. Though the superficial differences between Brown and arch-sentimentalist Harriet Beecher Stowe have discouraged their comparison, a look at the logic of martyrdom reveals a similar strategy at work in both Brown’s martyrization and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which makes death an argument for the manumission of slaves. I argue that this hugely successful novel reveals the potency of martyrological thinking in 19th-century America as it also reveals martyrdom and its logic to be the foundation of sentimentalism like Stowe’s. Finally, I look at the speeches and nonfiction of Frederick Douglass to argue that his own martyrization of John Brown is different than what we see in Brown and Stowe because it provokes change rather than validating abolitionism that already exists. To various degrees, these writers seem aware that there may be a problem in the rhetorical use of martyrdom against the putatively secular state; they consequently employ different strategies for negotiating the meaninglessness of suffering and death with the soteriological and eschatological assumptions of their day. These negotiations reveal the extent to which martyrdom could be taken seriously as a hammer of abolitionism by different authors and thus also indicate the degree to which martyrdom can be taken seriously as a political solution whatsoever. Ultimately, I want to argue that martyrdom and its logic are at best dubious when applied to secular politics precisely because it relies upon the analogy to Jesus Christ as savior, which cannot hold outside Christianity. Simply put, the death of a mortal cannot register eschatologically and, more importantly, death does not make a cogent argument for anything. Instead, martyrdom is preaching to the choir par excellance; whether the choir is Christian, abolitionist, or something else, martyrological appeals do not grow its membership, as martyrologists since early modernity have assumed.

This body of work explores the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 and looks at how African American challenge the built environment of the Fair. The African American community contested the white constructed spaces by reimaging and claiming them for the self. At the Fair, black subordination was achieved and was maintained by the unabashed use of white power structures. After Reconstruction Black people began to turn to racial solidarity as a means of survival. Prior to Emancipation Blacks had been segregated and denied equal participation in the larger society regardless of their individual achievements. The result has been that race pride had, to a large degree, been conspicuously absent. The Fair pushed African Americans towards greater solidarity through inadvertently promoting pride in their racial heritage. Through examining the Fair, this work illuminates that the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 served as a nexus for pivotal African American movements. I argue that the fair served as a turning point for African Americans and sparked radical movements that focused on Black independence at home and abroad. The Fair became a pivotal site of protest that paved the way for the Black Nationalist Movement, Pan-African Movement, the creation of the National Association of Colored Women, and the New Negro Movement.

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in English The aim of this MA thesis is to bring new perspectives on the genre of the African-American slave narrative. Therefore, its wider historical, socio-political and gender contexts are considered and the circumstances surrounding its development and current criticism are briefly outlined. The point of departure is a discussion of definitions that vary among the scholars who select different criteria for the subject of definition. The existing diversity of the texts and voices is discussed in connection to Moses Grandy's Narrative of the Life of Moses Grandy, Late a Slave in the United States of America. Grandy's narrative, an account of the maritime slave life, is analyzed. Its traditional, uniform narrative structures are juxtaposed with passages where some aspects of his masculine identity, problematized by the institution of slavery, can be traced. Ultimately, the thesis attempts to show that while the conventionalized framework pre-defining the narrative outline and themes is delineated by James Olney, any generally recognized definition of the genre does not exist. As a result of that conclusion, the genre is defined in the scope of this thesis. After the major characteristics of the genre are discussed and the definition of the African- American slave narrative is put forward, more...