Former Slaves on the Move: The Plantation Household, the White House, and the Postwar South as Spaces of Transit in Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10045/27464
Title: | Former Slaves on the Move: The Plantation Household, the White House, and the Postwar South as Spaces of Transit in Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes |
---|---|
Authors: | Gimeno Pahissa, Laura |
Keywords: | American literature | Travel writing | Slaves | Emancipation | Keckley, Elizabeth | Behind the Scenes |
Knowledge Area: | Filología Inglesa |
Issue Date: | 2012 |
Publisher: | Universidad de Alicante. Departamento de Filología Inglesa |
Citation: | GIMENO PAHISSA, Laura. “Former Slaves on the Move: The Plantation Household, the White House, and the Postwar South as Spaces of Transit in Elizabeth Keckley’s Behind the Scenes”. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses. No. 25 (2012). ISSN 0214-4808, pp. 335-349 |
Abstract: | Travel writing has been central to the American literary canon. From all possible backgrounds, origins and spaces, religious dissenters, immigrants and others have described their travelling experiences in North America. Within this profoundly American tradition, black Americans’ narratives are a special case. Most scholars agree that their personal accounts are not only autobiographical texts and political manifestos, but also travel narratives. Thus, the slaves’ journey is interpreted both as a physical experience—from the plantation to a free state—and a spiritual one—from ignorance into knowledge. After Emancipation, former slaves continued publishing their life experiences, and African American women became significantly active in autobiographical writing. These women challenged previous roles, and reinterpreted themselves as independent middle class entrepreneurs. Such is the case of the author analyzed in the present article: Elizabeth Keckley. Her journey from the plantation to Washington D.C. becomes an overt challenges to the racial and gender restrictions imposed upon her and gives wings to her desire for independence. Above all, the locations she inhabits while transiting from enslavement to middle class entrepreneurship inform this crucial transformation. By means of her transit, Keckley discovers her identity not only as female member of an oppressed race, but also as an individual who can achieve and prosper beyond the barriers imposed by (white and black) male society. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/10045/27464 | http://dx.doi.org/10.14198/raei.2012.25.23 |
ISSN: | 0214-4808 | 2171-861X (Internet) |
DOI: | 10.14198/raei.2012.25.23 |
Language: | eng |
Type: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
Peer Review: | si |
Appears in Collections: | Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses - 2012, No. 25 |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
RAEI_25_23.pdf | 360,08 kB | Adobe PDF | Open Preview | |
Items in RUA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.