Harriet Jacobs - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Bielefeld University (Anglistik: British and American Studies), course: 'It's Moe, the White Slave' - Slave and Neo-Slave Narratives, language: English, abstract: 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl' (1861) by Harriet Jacobs is a multilayered slave narrative, it concerns many major subjects like the violent, regardless behaviour of white middle class women towards slaves in the U.S. South during the antebellum years as well as the peculiar institution and social cohesion within the family. But in this essay I will concentrate on gender and race conventions and the protagonist's struggle of gaining true womanhood. First I will examine what true womanhood is and how it developed. Ongoing I will also analyse these conventions in relation to Linda Brent, the protagonist of Harriet Jacobs' autobiographical narrative, and other characters having an influence on Linda. As a last point I will examine the author's intention to stress the ideal woman.