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(Dis)Forming The American Canon: African-Arabic Slave Narratives and the Vernacular
To date, few critical studies have examined the African-American slave narratives that were written in Arabic, and none of these has seized the occasion to reconsider the problems of translation and canon formation, the relationship between literacy and reason, and the relation of Western Enlightenment reason to Arabic texts.
In (Dis)Forming the American Canon, Ronald A. T. Judy offers an alternative interpretation of literacy that challenges that claim of traditional Enlightenment discourse that literacy and reason are the privileged properties of Western culture. On the basis of his readings of autobiographical African-Arabic American slave narratives, Judy argues that through the production of the Arabic text, the African slave already had the necessary element that the West attributes to “reason” before his original introduction to Western culture: a literacy that mediated between Africa and Europe.
Paying careful attention to the problems of translation and canon formation, (Dis)Forming the American Canon demonstrates how cultural values, the humanities, and Western figures of reason must be transformed, and in particular how national literary traditions must ultimately be reconstituted and globalized. In addition, (Dis)Forming the American Canon includes the first published translation of the longest Arabic-language slave narrative known to exist in North America, the purportedly autobiographical nineteenth-century Arabic slave narrative known as Ben Ali’s Diary.
In (Dis)Forming the American Canon, Ronald A. T. Judy offers an alternative interpretation of literacy that challenges that claim of traditional Enlightenment discourse that literacy and reason are the privileged properties of Western culture. On the basis of his readings of autobiographical African-Arabic American slave narratives, Judy argues that through the production of the Arabic text, the African slave already had the necessary element that the West attributes to “reason” before his original introduction to Western culture: a literacy that mediated between Africa and Europe.
Paying careful attention to the problems of translation and canon formation, (Dis)Forming the American Canon demonstrates how cultural values, the humanities, and Western figures of reason must be transformed, and in particular how national literary traditions must ultimately be reconstituted and globalized. In addition, (Dis)Forming the American Canon includes the first published translation of the longest Arabic-language slave narrative known to exist in North America, the purportedly autobiographical nineteenth-century Arabic slave narrative known as Ben Ali’s Diary.
343 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 1993
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About the author
R.A. Judy
5 books7 followersR. A. Judy (aka Ronald A.T. Judy) is Professor of Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and author of (Dis)forming the American Canon: African-Arabic Slave Narratives and the Vernacular.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 22, 2023
Nice compilation of facts and historical documents and a nice suggestion of "we should question the classical slave narratives canon we have"
However fails to provide any Arab-African-American slave narratives, the so-called "Bilali Diary" for example is probably a re-telling of an Islamic legal book therefore it is not an example of a slave narrative.
But otherwise book is right about that we should look at American slave narratives in new perspective accepting the existence of Arab African American slaves.
However fails to provide any Arab-African-American slave narratives, the so-called "Bilali Diary" for example is probably a re-telling of an Islamic legal book therefore it is not an example of a slave narrative.
But otherwise book is right about that we should look at American slave narratives in new perspective accepting the existence of Arab African American slaves.
July 13, 2016
excellent; very important.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews