The Bondwoman's Narrative.Hannah Crafts. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. 2002. Read by Anna Deavere Smith For other persons of the same name, see Anna Smith. Anna Deavere Smith (born September 18, 1950, in Baltimore, Maryland) is an African American actress, playwright, and professor in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. 6 tapes. 9 hrs. Time Warner Audio. 1-58621-272-9. $32.98. Cardboard, plastic; plot, author, reader notes. SA A wide range of slave experiences is open to view in this unique novel, told as a first-person narrative
First-person narrative is a literary technique in which the story is narrated by one character, who explicitly refers to him or herself in the first person, that is, using words and phrases involving "I" and "we". and purportedly written in the 1850s. Hannah, who uses her light skin to advantage, receives some education, including enlightened discussion, during numerous visits with a sympathetic older couple who live near the plantation. As she is shunted from master to master, one glimpses the life of the personal servant and confidante con·fi·dante n. 1. A woman to whom secrets or private matters are disclosed. 2. A woman character in a drama or fiction, such as a trusted friend or servant, who serves as a device for revealing the inner thoughts or intentions , the house slave in settings poor and aristocratic, the field worker, and finally the runaway who successfully makes it to the North and freedom. Gothic elements entertain, and Crafts draws a chilling characterization of a trader who coldly sells "passed' persons back into slavery. Gates purchased this novel in manuscript at a Swan Galleries, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of auction of African Americana. He and other scholars note internal evidence such as knowledge of the Virginia and North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. escape routes. They assure readers that a white writer would never have assumed black identity in the slave period. This may be the first novel ever written by a slave and possibly "by any black woman at all," The reader's warmth and reproduction of slave speech carry the story well. For general listeners and students of African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. slavery. Edna M. Boardman, Bismark, ND |
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