FratFiles

• Save Paper

A literary critic in our modern world might say that Harriet Jacobs' autobiography contains self-justification, confession, and an unrefined expose of society's once flawed system. Her work in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl certainly set the standard for a new type of slave narrative—one written by the female sex geared towards a female audience. Jacobs explores the myths and realities surrounding African American womanhood in bondage and its relationship to 19th century standards associated with the white-dominated so-called "Cult of Womanhood." In trying to reach free white women of the north, Jacobs explains, "I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself […] I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered" (p 281). Jacobs even writes of her experiences under the false name of Linda Brent and masks important......

View the rest of this paper...

Approximate Word Count: 1766
Approximate Pages: 8 (250 words per double-spaced page)

Similar Essays

1. Harriet Jacobs And Womanhood
   

   Harriet Jacobs and Womanhood. A literary critic in our modern world might say
   that Harriet Jacobs' autobiography contains self-justification ...

2. Reconstructing The Black Woman
   

   ... Harriet Jacobs' provided a voice for black womanhood, as well as provided a more
   realistic image of a woman that can transcend races, social classes and culture ...

3. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl - Feminism
   

   ... Linda rejects the notion of true womanhood that has been passes on for centuries
   and ... Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the few ...

4. Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl - Feminism
   

   ... Linda rejects the notion of true womanhood that has been passes on for centuries
   and ... Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is one of the few ...

5. Life Of A Slave Girl
   

   ... Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ... In verbally rebutting Flint's
   attacks, Jacobs was denying ... right to her body, her womanhood, and her ...