LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:6 June 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Django Unchained: A Slave Narrative with a Capital S

P. Ponnivalavan, M.A.


On Defining Slave Narrative

Slave narrative is a genre of writing that recounts the personal experiences of slaves or former slaves. It serves the anti-slavery cause and portrays the atrocities committed by the slave owners and shows how the dominant society accepted the pro-slavery ideals. Britannica Encyclopaedia defines slave narrative as, …an account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave personally. Slave narratives comprise one of the most influential traditions in American literature, shaping the form and themes of some of the most celebrated and controversial writing, both in fiction and in autobiography, in the history of the United States (“slave narrative”)

Frederick Douglass’ Narrative

A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglass, Boston (1845) is a perfect example of a slave narrative. In contemporary works, especially fiction inspired by the slave narratives, the term Neo-Slave narrative is used. In his work The Afro-American Novel, Bernard W. Bell describes “neo-slave narratives” as “residually oral, modern narratives of escape from bondage to freedom” (qtd. in Smith 168). Valeria Smith modifies the description further: …although over time that definition has expanded to include a more diverse set of texts than Bell's initial description could have anticipated. This genre, which includes some of the most compelling fiction produced in tha last fifty years, has evolved to include texts set during the period of slavery as well as those set afterwards, at any time from the era of Reconstruction until the present” (Smith 168).

The Film Django Unchained – About a Black Slave

The term slave narrative, which is usually used in the context of fiction and occasionally to poetry in order, is used as a frame to study the American Western film, Django Unchained (2012) directed by Quentin Tarantino. This film is about Django a black slave, who, when freed, sets out to exact his revenge on the Whites who enslaved him, while saving his wife Broomhilda.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


P. Ponnivalavan, M.A.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Madras Christian College
East Tambaram
Chennai – 600 059
Tamilnadu
India
valavan22@gmail.com
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