[litp] (Neo-) Slave Narratives: Representations of the (Reverse) Underground Railroad (Nordamerikanische Literaturen und Kulturen) - Einzelansicht

The Underground Railroad refers to a pre-Civil War secret network of abolitionists who helped African Americans escape from enslavement in the American South to free Northern states or to British North America (Canada). The term ”Reverse Underground Railroad” is used to describe the abduction of free African Americans or fugitive slaves to sell them into slavery in the southern states. In numerous slave narratives, these stories of enslavement and escape were told as autobiographical accounts. In the 20^th and 21^st century, writers return to the subject matter, creating neo-slave narratives that, as Raquel Kennon suggests, ”grapple with the brutality of transatlantic slavery’s history, cultural memory, representation, resistance, identity, race, gender, sexuality, and subjectivity.”

We will explore the historical background as well as the representation of the resistance movement in North American culture. Our core texts will be Solomon Northup’s historical slave narrative Twelve Years a Slave (1853) and Colson Whitehead’s contemporary novel The Underground Railroad (2016).

Please buy the following editions:

Northup, Solomon. Twelve Years a Slave. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014.

Whitehead, Colson. The Underground Railroad. London, Fleet, 2017.

The shorter primary and secondary texts will be made available online or in class.

Course requirements: readings, active participation, oral and written assignments, abstract of paper project, graded research paper (10-12 pages)

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