Interpreting Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl From The Persoective Of Dialogue

Harriet Jacobs’s slave narrative Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl (1861) describes the process that Linda, the protagonist, got freedom from a slave girl. It is the first American female slave narrative. It contains rich contents and has a unique narrative perspective. This paper interprets Jacobs’s narrative from the angle of dialogue. It is different from common research perspectives in domestic and foreign academic circles, such as morality, authenticity, narrative strategy, and so on. This paper is based on Bakhtin’s dialogic theory and call-and-response, a black oral cultural tradition. Through analyzing great dialogue, microdialogue, and various forms of call-and-response in the text, this paper presents the unique creative meanings of this complete dialogic work.This paper first introduces great dialogue and microdialogue in Bakhtin’s dialogic theory, and call-and-response, whose nature is also dialogic. Dialogic theory is a western theory that has universality, and call-and-response is exclusive to black cultural tradition. Combining them together to analyze Jacobs’s narrative is in itself a kind of dialogue, which manifests the complete dialogic feature of this slave narrative to a higher degree.Then this paper analyzes great dialogue and microdialogue concretely in the text. Great dialogue is mainly embodied in the structure and thoughts of the text. Microdialogue primarily focuses on concrete dialogues. Great dialogue and microdialogue respectively ensure the dialogic nature of the text in the macro level and micro level, and they display the image, real emotions and attitudes of Linda.Thirdly, this paper discusses various forms of call-and-response. Call-and-response is widely used in the various black literature works as a black cultural tradition. It has become a mark that signals black cultures and features. Through analyzing various forms of call-and-response in the text, it shows that Linda was virtuous. She pursued freedom and equality. She was eager to get recognition of the mainstream society of the whites and be merged with them. Above all, based on the analysis of various dialogic forms, this paper concludes that Jacobs’s Incidents In The Life of A Slave Girl is a completely dialogic work. The aim that the writer constructs such dialogues is to discuss the possibilities of eliminating racial barriers and misunderstandings, strengthening communications, and solving ethnic and social problems in a peaceful way.