The Transformation of the South as Presented in the Literature of Southern African American Women: Harriet Jacobs, Octavia Rogers, and Zora Neale Hurston

ECU Author/Contributor (non-ECU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)

Hannah Saunders (Creator)

Institution

East Carolina University (ECU )

Web Site: http://www.ecu.edu/lib/

Abstract: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs, The House of Bondage (1890) by \nOctavia Rogers Albert, and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston \nprovide accounts of historical time periods as represented in literature that give more detail than \nhistory books alone ever could. The memoir of Jacobs, written under the pseudonym "Linda \nBrent", documents the horrors of slavery and shows that female slaves were considered of no \nvalue. It also provides a firsthand account of the harsh mistreatment endured, and the breakdown \nof the family structure. Jacobs also discusses the moral discrepancies that existed between slave \nowners and Christian practices. Albert also discussed religion and plight of slaves in the \nSouthern United States and showed that the conditions existed not for one, but for many, through \ninterviews with former slaves. Hurston's work shares many of the same themes, but presents \nthem with a new style of writing that shows blacks in the South were more than their past\; that \nthey were humans with emotions and desires. When one looks at the works of Jacobs, Albert, \nand Hurston, one can, through analysis based on theoretical perspectives of New Historicism, \nFeminism and Realism, recognize commonalities of theme and symbolism that are unique and \nenlightening blue-prints for a better understanding of slavery and its aftereffects.

Additional Information

Publication

Thesis

Language: English

Date: 2023

Subjects

African American Literature, South, Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Rogers Albert, Harriet Jacobs

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