A Black Feminist Interpretation Of Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Harriet Jacobs, a former slave, is an African American female writer. She takes her life experience as sources to write an autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. This autobiography reflects the black women’s miserable life under the slavery of American South in the19th century, exposes the cruelty of the southern slavery and inhumanity of the northern racial discrimination. This thesis analyzes Jacobs’autobiography through the perspective of black feminism, aiming to offer a new perspective for the study of Harriet Jacobs.Different from the traditional white women perspective, black feminism emphasizes the multiple oppressions that black women have suffered:gender, racial and class discrimination. Thus black feminism concerns the harm caused by the oppression and how to solve the problem. Though the research on the book has been quite extensive, very few scholars have attempted to deal with sexual oppression that black women suffer through the perspective of black feminism. This thesis argues that this novel reflects the strong black feminist consciousness by representing the theme of black women’s gradual wakening, desire for freedom, pursuit for quality and hope for family unity under the multiple oppressions. Harriet Jacobs has offered an answer to how to solve the problem. It is that black women can regenerate by loving life, constant struggle and fighting with their fate.This paper could be divided into three parts. The first part is the introduction, stating the life experience of Harriet Ann Jacobs, the theory of black feminism, and the literary review home and abroad. The second part is the main body of the paper, consisting of three chapters. Chapter One mainly discusses the sufferings, the fragmentation of their family and the struggle for family unity under the racial discrimination. Chapter Two states the sexual oppression upon black women, their awakening and the persistent struggle for freedom. Chapter Three analyzes the social oppression upon black women, points out that evil slavery is the origin of the slavery. It also shows the power of community and black culture. The third part is the conclusion. This paper is concluded that black feminist consciousness is realized by describing the theme of black women’s unyielding fighting against the oppressions, their freedom gaining and their motherhood fulfillment.