The Slave's Rebellion: Literature, History, Orature (Blacks in the Diaspora)

Episodes of slave rebellions such as Nat Turner's are central to speculations on the trajectory of black history and the goal of black spiritual struggles. Using fiction, history, and oral poetry drawn from the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa, this book analyzes how writers reinterpret episodes of historical slave rebellion to conceptualize their understanding of an ideal ''master-less'' future. The texts range from Frederick Douglass's The Heroic Slave and Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of this World to Yoruba praise poetry and novels by Nigerian writers Adebayo Faleti and Akinwumi Isola. Each text reflects different ''national'' attitudes toward the historicity of slave rebellions that shape the ways the texts are read. This is an absorbing book about the grip of slavery and rebellion on modern black thought. Cover......Page 1 c o n t e n t s......Page 8 acknowledgments......Page 10 introduction......Page 14 1. hegel’s burden: the slave’s counterviolence in philosophy, critical theory,and literature......Page 22 2. nat turner and plot making in earlyafrican american fiction......Page 35 3. reverse abolitionism and blackpopular resistance: the marrow oftradition......Page 63 4. slave rebellion, the great depression,and the “turbulence to come” forcapitalism: black thunder......Page 79 5. distilling proverbs of history fromthe haitian war of independence: theblack jacobins......Page 97 6. slave rebellion and magical realism:the kingdom of this world......Page 117 7. slavery in african literary discourse:orality contra realism in yorùbá oríkìand omo oló kùn esin......Page 134 8. prying rebellious subaltern consciousnessout of the clenched jaws of oraltraditions: efúnsetán aníwúrà......Page 158 9. reiterating the black experience:rebellious material bodies and theirtextual fates in dessa rose......Page 170 conclusion: what is the meaningof slave rebellion......Page 185 notes......Page 190 bibliography......Page 198 index......Page 214