Among the literary works about slavery, slave narratives and life writing of abolitionists are the core component of the discourse of freedom that was prevalent in the 19th century America. Frederick Douglass (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass), Harriet Jacobs (A True Tale of Slavery and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl), Solomon Northup (Twelve Years a Slave), William and Ellen Craft (Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom) were the representatives of fugitive slaves whose classic narratives connote not only the fierce system of enslavement but also their passages for freedom. The Discourse of freedom in these slave narratives and life writings, reveal the power structure of the society, subjugated identity, pains and suffering as well as their displacement and eventual mapping of their personal geographies. This paper is a study on the personal geographies as represented by Solomon Northup, and William Wells Brown (circa 1814 – November 6, 1884), including his memoir, The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom (1858), and Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself.
About the presenterI-Chun Wang
I-Chun Wang retired in July, 2018 from the position of Chair Professor of English at Kaohsiung Medical University. She serves as an adjunct professor at National Sun Yat-sen University, where she served as Professor of English and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. Her publications have appeared in books and special issues for Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, CLCWEB Journal and Cultura,and Landscape, Seascape and Ecological Imagination (Routledge), etc..