Midterm Study Guide pt. 4

The picture above is Douglass' home, Cedar Hill, which happens to be in Washington, DC.  Perhaps you may be able to visit it someday.    I know that I would like to!

Let's start this study guide by looking at the genre of life writing.  It exists on the boundary between history and literature.  As several of you mentioned, before taking this class, you might have considered our readings in life writing to be more historical than literary.  Life writing itself is divided into several sub-genres: memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, letters, journals and diaries, and travel writing.  Not all travel writing is autobiographical, though, and travel writing is often considered a separate genre.  Memoirs cover part of their authors' life.  Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is an example of a memoir since it is only one of her several books about her life.  Autobiographies cover all or most of their authors' life.  The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a good example of this sub-genre.


By the way, did you know that Franklin's autobiography was first published in French?  The first three sections (in English)  were published in 1818, but they were heavily edited.  The complete autobiography was not published until 1868.

We looked at our American autobiographies & memoirs in reverse chronological order, starting with Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).  Then we moved onto Frederick Douglass' Narrative (1845).  Finally we read The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1790, 1868).

Here is an old picture of Dr. Flint's house in Edenton, N.C., the town where Jacobs was born and grew up.


This is a picture of Dr. Flint who was nearly seventy when he was tormenting Harriet!


The ideology of True Womanhood was important to our discussion of Incidents:

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/truewoman.html

Note the impact of gender (and class) on Incidents as Jacobs was a "house slave." 

We also focused on depictions of childhood and work in our discussion of each of the memoirs/autobiographies.  Note that Douglass was born on a plantation and was a field hand but also worked in Baltimore.  Note that Franklin attended school for a brief period and then was apprenticed first to his father and then to his brother James. 

We also talked about references to religion in Jacobs and Douglass.  Had we time, we might have talked about religion in Franklin. 

In discussing autobiographies and memoirs, consider self-representation and appeals to the audience.

Below is a picture of Franklin's birthplace in downtown Boston.  The house itself is no more, having been destroyed by a fire in 1811.
Below is a picture of Franklin that predates the American Revolution.  Another example of 18th century British portraiture, it was painted while he was in London. 


I'll close with a picture of Frederick Douglass from 1856.  If you would like to find out more about his life, this link will take you to his biography:

http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/douglass_f.htm