Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T03:40:59.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction: Over-exposed, Under-exposed: Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2010

Deborah M. Garfield
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Rafia Zafar
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Get access

Summary

As the coeditor of this volume, my tasks have been fairly specific and predictable: I have provided editorial feedback to the contributors, served as a liaison between scholars and press, and written this introductory essay. As a scholar of African American literature who happens also to be an African American female, however, the questions associated with my tasks have been less specific but perhaps more taxing: Where do I stand in relation to this undertaking? That is to say, has my role in putting together this collection, on the autobiography of a long-deceased, female, ex-slave, been overdetermined? Fellow scholar Ann duCille noted recently that the rapid increase of scholarship about black women has “led me to think of myself as a kind of sacred text. Not me personally, of course, but me black woman object, Other.” What does it mean, she inquired, for “black women academics to stand in the midst of … the traffic jam … that black feminist studies has become?” For to introduce a collection of essays about Harriet Jacobs is not simply to present a body of scholarly works; it is also to comment upon the curious resurrection of one particular “black woman object” and her justly renowned autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

Such comments may seen strange indeed, especially within the context of an essay that seeks to situate Harriet Jacobs and her contemporary critics for a heterogeneous leadership.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×