Susanna Rowson’s Barbary Captivity Narrative, or the Struggle for the Freedom of American Women in Algiers

Authors

  • Sabrina Zerar University of Tizi-Ouzou

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-socialrev.v1.1545

Abstract

This research explores the feminist dimensions of Rowson's play, Slaves in Algiers or, a struggle for freedom (1794), from historicist and dialogical perspectives. More particularly, it looks at the play within the context of the politics of the early American republic to uncover how Rowson deploys the captivity of American sailors in Algiers (1785-1796) as a pretext to deconstrust the established gender power relations without hurting the sensibilities of her audience in its reference to the issue of black slavery. The research also unveils the many intertextual relationships that the play holds with the prevalent captivity culture of the day, sentimental literature, and more specifically with Cervantes’s Don Quixote.

References

Baepler, P.(1999). White slaves, African masters: an anthology of American Barbary captivity narratives. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.

Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. (C. Emerson, Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Cervantes, M. S. (2000). The ingenious hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha. (J. Rutherford, Trans.). London: Penguin.

Norton, M. B., Katzman, D.M., Escott, P. D., Chudacoff, H. P., Paterson, T.G., Tuttle Jr. W. M.¬¬, Brophy, J. W. (1991). A people and a nation. Dallas, TX: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Peskin, L. (2009). Captives and countrymen: Barbary slavery and the American public 1785-1816. Baltimore, MA: John Hopkins University.

Richardson, S. (1980). Pamela; or, virtue rewarded. London: Penguin.

Rowson, S. (1794). Slaves in Algiers, or a struggle for freedom. Philadelphia, PA: Wrigley and Berriman.

Wollstonecraft, M. (2008). A vindication of the rights of woman and A Vindication of the rights of men. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Published

31-10-2019

How to Cite

Zerar, S. (2019). Susanna Rowson’s Barbary Captivity Narrative, or the Struggle for the Freedom of American Women in Algiers. SOCIAL REVIEW. International Social Sciences Review Revista Internacional De Ciencias Sociales, 1, 59–70. https://doi.org/10.37467/gka-socialrev.v1.1545