Slave Writings, Captivity Narratives and a 'World Turned Upside Down'.

Bristol Central Library and the Open University are proud to hold this interesting and informative event.Throughout the period of the Atlantic Slave Trade and beyond a significant popular form of writing in Britain and North America was the 'captivity narrative'. Typically such works described the experiences of white English speaking men and women who had been abducted, captured, enslaved by North African Muslim corsairs, or Native Americans. As the 18th century progressed a new version of the captivity narrative appeared, one written by black Africans who had experienced slavery. As literary productions they both reproduce and revise the protocols of the captivity narrative - by placing the usually alien 'other' in the white role, for example. This lecture illustrates, textually and contexually, how slave narratives may be understood by both being read alongside and against captivity narratives, as being both a part of the genre and apart from it. Held at the Central Library, College Green, Bristol.