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Romanticism and Slave Narratives

Transatlantic Testimonies

Helen Thomas author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:5th Aug '04

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Romanticism and Slave Narratives cover

The first major attempt to relate canonical Romantic texts to writings of the African diaspora.

The first major attempt to relate canonical Romantic texts to the African diaspora, this study explores connections with literature produced by slaves, slave owners, abolitionists and radical dissenters between 1770 and 1830. Thomas reveals a dialogue between two diverse cultural spheres, and their corresponding systems of thought, epistemology and expression.Helen Thomas's study opens a new avenue for Romantic literary studies by exploring connections with literature produced by slaves, slave owners, abolitionists and radical dissenters between 1770 and 1830. In the first major attempt to relate canonical Romantic texts to the writings of the African diaspora, she investigates English literary Romanticism in the context of a transatlantic culture, and African culture in the context of eighteenth-century Britain. In so doing, the book reveals an intertextual dialogue between two diverse yet equally rich cultural spheres, and their corresponding systems of thought, epistemology and expression. Showing how marginalised slaves and alienated radical dissenters contributed to transatlantic debates over civil and religious liberties, Helen Thomas remaps Romantic literature on this broader canvas of cultural exchanges, geographical migrations and identity-transformation, in the years before and after the abolition of the slave trade.

'An important work that both illuminates and problematises the relationship between Romanticism and the slave narratives that often were read far more widely than the now canonical work of the Romantic poets.' BARS Bulletin
'Overall, Thomas's study is an impressive and highly useful volume …'. Romanticism

ISBN: 9780521604567

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 20mm

Weight: 510g

348 pages