Date Thesis Awarded
12-2023
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Arts (BA)
Department
English
Advisor
Richard Lowry
Committee Members
Elizabeth Barnes
Suzette Spencer
Laurie Wolf
Abstract
In exploring Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, this thesis emphasizes how writing is an embodied risk and experience for protagonist Linda Brent. Linda withdraws her body from slavery by hiding in her grandmother’s garret, isolating herself from her family and its stories. Within enslaved communities, storytelling is a survival method that helps mitigate the realities of slavery; without a storyteller to turn to, Linda becomes a storyteller by writing letters. While hiding in this space, Linda protects her body from harmful medical and legal discourse, both of which rhetorically and, sometimes literally, disable her. This project examines the garret and writing through a socio-historical context to reveal the complex interplay between danger and freedom: the garret is physically disabling in how it constrains Linda and symbolically enabling in how it gives her the autonomy to exist–free from her enslaver’s influence. Therefore, as a character, Linda acts as a distancing mechanism for Jacobs, allowing Jacobs to protect her story from outside influences and (re)write it without being redrawn into the economies of slavery.
Recommended Citation
Lowe, Allyson, "Linda Brent’s Condition(s) in "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl": Medical, Physical, Emotional, and Authorial" (2023). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 2072.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/2072
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