Tag Archives: slavery

To Be Read Pt 1: Diving into 19th Century America

Posted on by

Can you tell that I’m trying to wrangle the beast that is my TBR list for my thesis? So, I’m listing down these articles and chapters down in hopes that by the time I come back to write a blog post, I would have read most of the books and articles listed below. I’m just trying to take some control.

  • Changing Ideals of Womanhood During the Nineteenth-Century Woman Movement by Susan M. Cruea (20 pages) [Has interesting historical points but doesn’t quite fill in the gaps that I’m looking for. A good overview at the ideals of womanhood throughout the 19th century. Also the focus is singularly on white women.]
  • Introduction: Women, Slavery, and Historical Research by Brenda E. Stevenson (5 pages) [I should have probably figured that an article titled “Introduction” with only 5 pages is literally just a short introduction to a slew of other more important essays. The good news is that I found more articles that are more related to my thesis!]
  • Nineteenth-Century African American Women’s Autobiography as Social Discourse: The Example of Harriet Ann Jacobs by Johnnie M. Stover (23 pages) [This is such a useful read! Sure, Stover uses Bakhtin and focuses too much on the linguistics of HJ’s work for my own use but there are so many useful points and quotes to be used here. I mean, at least he acknowledges the obstacles HJ faces in writing an autobiography to a white audience. Also, great points on using historical contexts for literary criticism]
  • “Telling the Story Her Own Way”: The Role of Feminist Standpoint Theory in Rhetorical Studies by Glen McClish and Jacqueline Bacon (30 pages)
  • Master Texts and Slave Narratives: Race, Form, and Intertextuality in the Field of Cultural Production by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (20 pages)
  • Toward 1968: The Discourse in Formation by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (31 pages)
  • The Anti-Slavery Movement and the Birth of Women’s Rights by Angela Y Davis (6 pages) [An interesting look at the birth of female-led abolitionist movement and how women’s rights and abolitionist movement go hand in hand. However, it’s quite confusing as well because the transition from True Womanhood to activism is not very clear.]

135 pages. That’s perfectly doable, right?