Black Slave Women As The Other In Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, an intriguing and enlightening look at slavery through the eyes of a female slave by the name of Harriet Jacobs, opens a door into the mind of a slave woman in the 1800s. Although the novel was first published in the United States in 1861, Lindas (Harriet's) trials and tribulations still apply to all Americans today.This present thesis intends to apply Foucault power theory to analyze how black slave women are treated. Masters have complete power over their subject (slaves) with the law being made to their advantage. These black women slaves are therefore denied discourse of power and reduced to "the Other". This thesis will focus on the protagonist s (Linda Brent) life within the sphere of slavery.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis comprises three chapters. The first chapter, by focusing on their suppression, sexual exploitation and the separation from family, discusses the anguish of the black women slaves in girlhood as they are treated less than human beings as the Other.The second chapter is devoted to the plight of womanhood in the novel; disclosing how the institution of slavery and the masters manipulate their unlimited power over these black slave women, subvert their identity, and how these women as the Other encounter the oppression under power. Also discussed will be the resistance offered by these women against such oppressive power discourse as Foucault maintains that there is no power which goes unchallenged.The last chapter will look into the suppressed motherhood of black women in the novel. As the Other, they are subjects of oppression, denied or forced to be mothers at an early age. Unfortunately enough, the suppressive power of slavery does not allow them to enjoy motherhood.With Foucault s power theory as the perspective, the present thesis on incident in the Life of a Slave Girl has significant value and hopes to open one more path for other researchers and critics to analyze the novel further.