Open AccessSlavery through a Rhetorical Lens: The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill as the Female Neo-slave Narrative
Author(s) -
Brygida Gasztold
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
res rhetorica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 2392-3113
DOI - 10.29107/rr2020.4.6
Subject(s) - narrative , emotive , rhetorical question , subject (documents) , politics , representation (politics) , sociology , history , media studies , law , literature , art , political science , anthropology , library science , computer science
The paper uses the rhetorical lenses to examine a neo-slave narrative The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. The exploration of emotive, ethical, and political dimensions of the text allows the author to demonstrate its emotional and moral effects, deriving within the triad author-text-reader. The article particularly highlights gendered aspects of bondage, which have been traditionally marginalized. The female protagonist and the message that her story conveys prompt the readers to assume a position on the subject of slavery which transcends the story as such and condemns the legal institution of human chattel enslavement in all its representation.