Author(s)

Cai Jinqiu ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Foreign Language Studies, Suqian University, Jiangsu Suqian,223800, China

Corresponding Author

Cai Jinqiu

ABSTRACT

This paper examines Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass from a spatial perspective. It aims to explore the author's construction of a written self in terms of spatial resistance in order to help readers understand the role space plays in the transformation from object into subject. By examining the disciplined space under slavery, it argues that Douglass presents the disciplined space under slavery as a metaphor for slaves' status as objects. Modelled after Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, Douglass's Narrative creates a written self whose transformation from object to subject is realized and granted in the public space. Although the former slave finally obtains freedom in the Northern free space, he has yet to fight for an equal space. 

KEYWORDS

Self; object; subject; spatial resistance; public space

CITE THIS PAPER

Cai Jinqiu, Spatial Resistance and Status Transformation in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Art and Performance Letters (2022) Vol. 3: 36-43. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/artpl.2022.030208.

REFERENCES

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[2] Baker, Houston A. Jr. (1984). Blues. Ideology and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp:45-46.
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[4] Douglass, Frederick. (1987). Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 1845. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Mentor-Penguin Books, pp: 243-331.
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[6] McDowell, Deborah E. (1991) “In the First Place: Making Frederick Douglass and the Afro-American Narrative Tradition.” African American autobiography: A collection of critical essays. pp: 36-58.
[7] McFeely, William S. (991). Frederick Douglass. New York: Touchstone-Simon and Schuster, p66.
[8] Olney, James. (1984) " "I Was Born": Slave Narratives, Their Status as Autobiography and as Literature." Callaloo, pp: 46-73.
[9] Smith, Valerie. (1987). Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narratives. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, p34.
[10] Williams, Eric. (1966). Capitalism and Slavery. Capricorn Books: New York, p35.
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