Earticle

초록

영어

This paper analyzes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, Frederick Douglass’s most famous work, focusing on the process of Douglass’s performing the role as an African-American heroic leader. As black writers have attracted public interest and attention, and various methods of literary assessment have developed, the works of African-American writers, including Douglass, have been reevaluated by recent authors and critics, after years of unfair critical appreciation. After published in 1845, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself has been read and understood as a story which criticizes the dominant slavery and its extreme inhumanness, as well as vindicates the right and freedom of African-Americans in the patriarchal and racist United States. In this autobiography, the author and main character Douglass took the starring role in the slave community, mastered how to read and write after recognizing the importance of literacy in order to be free from the slavery, and finally wrote his own story by himself, in spite of his unbearable circumstances in the 19th century. In one aspect, Douglass who takes the lead role of this self-made success story can be seen as a successful rebel against white racism and authority. In another aspect, however, Douglass alienates himself from his mother and colleagues of the black community, and deserts his name which was given from his dead mother so as to get a new one from the white man. Moreover, in this text, he paid no attention to his wife, Anna Murray, who played a key role for him to be free and famous as a writer and women’s rights activist, nor did he have affection or sympathy for female slaves whipped by their masters in public. Most critics have thought that Frederick Douglass in this autobiography was a self-made man alone against all odds, but with the help of his writing skills, Douglass tried hard to represent himself as an extremely special being, that is, an African-American heroic figure, who wants to have the consciousness of privileged white men, as well as the undercover desire to become a member of the white-male dominating society.

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 인용문헌
 Abstract

키워드

저자

• 최순근 [ Sun-Geun Choi | 우송대 ]

참고문헌

발행기관

간행물

표지보기 관심저널 등록

• 간행물명

  미국소설 [마크 트웨인 리뷰]

• 간기

  연3회

• pISSN

  1738-5784

• 수록기간

  1991~2020

• 등재여부

  KCI 등재

• 십진분류

  KDC 843 DDC 813