Mother – Daughter Relationship under the System of Slavery: A Comparative Analysis of Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Cather’s Sapphira and the Slave Girl

Bc. Zuzana Bartoňová

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This Diploma Thesis deals with mother – daughter bonds and how these relationships are portrayed in three works by female American writers. The texts are Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather. The texts have been chosen as a survey to the whole range of texts talking about slavery. As they were written at different time, they show some different points of view of the author on mother – daughter bonds. On the other hand, all of the works share some common features.

Keywords

Slavery, slave family, female slaves, mother – daughter bonds, surrogate relationships, punishment, sexual harassment, threat, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Sapphira and the Slave Girl

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 2. 6. 2008

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 11. 6. 2008
• Supervisor: Mgr. et Mgr. Kateřina Prajznerová, M.A.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Master programme / field:
Philology / English Language and Literature