ASRC 1849 - FWS: Memories of Enslavement: an African Perspective

Spring. 3 credits. Letter grades only.

First-Year Writing Seminar.

A. Ltifi.

The dearth of trans-Saharan slave narratives should not deter us from undertaking the task of recovering the voices of the enslaved. The absence of an African body of narratives written by slaves that parallels the established American one does not entail that the source materials available to us are illegible as slave narratives. Nor should this lead us to assume that trans-Saharan slaves were silent. Through police and court records, autobiographies and works of fiction, this course will expose students to a diverse textual repository wherein trans-Saharan memories of enslavement are introduced in all their unrefined, less-personal and imagined forms. Students will also explore dominant themes and identify affinities and disparities between both American and trans-Saharan slaveries.