Graduate Program

English

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

2010

Thesis Director

Michael Loudon

Thesis Committee Member

Ann Boswell

Thesis Committee Member

Tim Taylor

Abstract

This thesis offers a synthesis of existing research regarding not only Frederick Douglass· literacy in the slave narrative genre. but also an Aristotelian analysis of his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself (1845). Dougiass' challenge is to reach an audience not only of abolitionists, but also of free blacks who are more grounded in the vernacular tradition than equal to his own considerable skills in rhetorical literary construction.

My research addresses the problem that existing research inadequately considers the degree to which Douglass uses his awareness of the audience and employs rhetoric in his Narrative. My thesis analyzes Douglass' Narrative using principles and precepts from classical rhetoric while examining Douglass' work through the lens or genre theory.

I also recognize that. before Douglass can assess the rhetorical strategies to reach his audience. he must overcome limits within himself that Du Bois would later call "double consciousness." Douglass docs not equivocate: I argue in my thesis that his Narrative, in echoes of Aristotle, uses the best ideas expressed with the best words in the best arrangement for the best purpose, the liberation of millions of enslaved Africans, the very embodiment of rhetoric as agency in voicing his humanity on his own terms for his own purposes.

Download

Share

COinS