Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black

Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black Questions

Join the discussion about Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black by asking a new question or answering an existing question.

 

gkg k #90753
Apr 27, 2009 3:28 PM

Report abuse

theme

how does wilson show that being a women is a form of enslavement. give me counter arguements as well

Answer this question

 

jill d #170087
Jan 05, 2012 8:49 AM

Report abuse

In his introduction to the 1983 edition of the novel, Gates claims that Our Nig is a major example of generic fusion in which a woman writer appropriated black male (the slave narrative) and white female (the sentimental novel) forms and revised these into a synthesis at once peculiarly black and female." In many ways Frado does typify the sentimental heroine—parentless, poor, friendless and abused, relying on her own strength of character—but she also diverges from that tradition in her rejection of religion and her inability to establish a stable domestic life. Julia Stern (1995) contends that such differences mark Wilson's synthesis of sentimental and gothic traditions, particularly in the portrayal of Frado's suffering. And, while the novel itself is not literally a slave narrative, some critics have conjectured that the slave-narrative conventions used in Our Nig were intended to demonstrate the parallels between the treatments of blacks in the North and the South, including the similar economic motivations that structure relations within both systems.

Source(s): http://www.enotes.com/sketches-from-life-free-black-our-nig-criticism/our-nig-sketches-from-life-free-black

 

Join for free to answer this question.

Existing Users

New Users

Must contain six characters and at least one digit.

Our Nig: Or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black Essays and Related Content