Read more
Analyses the relationships among the socio-historical contexts, generic forms, and rhetorical strategies of British West Indian slave narratives. Grounded by the syncretic theories of creolisation and testimonio it breaks new ground by reading these dictated and fragmentary narratives on their own terms as examples of 'creole testimony'.
List of contents
'So Much Things to Say': The Creole Testimonies of British West Indian Slaves The Forms of Creole Testimony: A Poetics of Fragmentation The Creole Voices of West Indian Slave Narratives 'Going to Law': Legal Discourse and Testimony in Early West Indian Slave Narratives Zombie Testimony: Creole Religious Discourse in West Indian Slave Narratives Creole Testimony and the Black Atlantic: Re-Mapping the Early Slave Narrative
About the author
NICOLE N. ALJOE Assistant Professor at Northeastern University, USA.
Summary
Analyses the relationships among the socio-historical contexts, generic forms, and rhetorical strategies of British West Indian slave narratives. Grounded by the syncretic theories of creolisation and testimonio it breaks new ground by reading these dictated and fragmentary narratives on their own terms as examples of 'creole testimony'.
Additional text
'Creole Testimonies will become the standard work on West Indian slave narratives and ex-slave narratives. Aljoe accurately points out that scholars and readers have long preferred the North American ex-slave narratives, such as Frederick Douglass's, because through them shines a single seemingly authentic author . . . Creole Testimonies argues for the centrality of these narratives based on their collaborative nature, in which several voices, including the slave's or freed-person's, argued about black humanity and the legitimacy of slavery and based on their reflection of West Indian culture and even Caribbean topography - fragments assembled by men and women into a meaningful whole.' - John Saillant, professor of English and History, Western Michigan University
Report
'Creole Testimonies will become the standard work on West Indian slave narratives and ex-slave narratives. Aljoe accurately points out that scholars and readers have long preferred the North American ex-slave narratives, such as Frederick Douglass's, because through them shines a single seemingly authentic author . . . Creole Testimonies argues for the centrality of these narratives based on their collaborative nature, in which several voices, including the slave's or freed-person's, argued about black humanity and the legitimacy of slavery and based on their reflection of West Indian culture and even Caribbean topography - fragments assembled by men and women into a meaningful whole.' - John Saillant, professor of English and History, Western Michigan University
