Frances E. W. Harper is a central figure in the history of
nineteenth- and twentieth-century African-American literature and
intellectual thought. The foremost poet of the free colored
community, she was also a lecturer, educator, essayist, and
novelist. A prolific champion of the abolitionist and feminist
causes, she has come to be recognized for the critical role she
played in the rise of the women's movement, particularly in the
development of the black women's movement. Yet neither her art nor
her political insight was preserved by subsequent generations until
recently. In this important study, poet Melba Joyce Boyd analyzes
Harper not simply as a feminist and an activist, but as a writer.
Boyd reads her in context, placing Harper's life, poetry, novels,
and speeches within the nineteenth century African-American quest
for freedom and literacy. Harper's genius is illuminated as Boyd
traces her radicalism through her struggles with issues of race,
gender, and class, and the other personal and social injustices she
confronted. Discarded Legacy comprises three parts: The
Abolitionist Years, The Pursuit of the Promised Land, and The
Woman's Era. These divisions characterize the thrust of the
historical periods which encompass Harper's lifetime and the
thematic focus of her writings. Though Harper's primary political
emphasis is on slavery and the Reconstruction, she sustains a
strong feminist voice throughout these times and in all of her
writings. Likewise, during the women's era, she maintains an
anti-racist stance and strongly criticizes racism in white feminist
politics. Boyd's response to Harper's work is interactive and
improvisational, and whenever possible, she maintains Harper's
voice, allowing her to speak about her own work. When analyzing
Harper's language, Boyd provides insight into Harper's aesthetic by
discussing the writings thematically and structurally within a
biographical framework. Finally, by examining Harper's use of
traditional poetic techniques, language, oral tradition forms, and
other tools, Boyd demonstrates how Harper's art and politics are
synthesized into a dynamic whole. This book weaves Harper's radical
vision with the intuitive and analytical dimensions of her
imagination and language. Through perceptive explication of
Harper's writings and consideration of her thematic inclinations
and political and social affiliations, Boyd is able to show how
Harper crafted her subjects and how the literature and speeches
interrelated in theme and historical experience. Boyd has
successfully arranged Harper's work in a manner that connects our
present to Harper's past and that re-envisions her consciousness.
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