Frederick Douglass Impact On African American Literature

Douglass wrote many narratives in order the people know about him and about slaves life. When Douglass published his "Narrative of the Life", the abolitionist movement was beginning to gain political force (nationalhumanitiescenter.org). Douglass was first known as a speaker then a writer. His first book went through nine editors in the first two years and eventually became the standard against which all other slave narratives even his own later one are measured (nationalhumanitiescenter.org). Douglass was a public speaker who could fearfully self-fashion himself as hero of his own adventure. In the first narratives he combined and compare the achievement of seldom adulthood, freedom, and voice (nationalhumanitiescenter.org). The resulting

Before the American Civil war, African american literature primarily focused on the issue of slavery as indicated by the popular replacement of Slave narratives (newworldencyclopedia.org). African American literature are the role of African American within the larger American society, African American culture, racism, slavery, and equality (newworldencyclopedia.org). Today, African American literature has become accepted as an essential part of American literature. Despite these views, some traditions academics and intellectual argue that African American literature only exists as part of a balkanization of literature (newworldencyclopedia.org). According to these critics, literature is splitting into distinct and separate groupings because of the rise of identity politics in the United States and other parts of the world. These critics reject bringing identity politics into literature because this would mean that "only women could write about women for women, and only blacks about blacks, for blacks" (newworldencyclopedia.org). The general agreement view appears to be that American literature is not breaking apart because of genres like African American literature. American literature is simply reflecting the increasing diversity of the United States and showing more signs of diversity than ever before in its history (newworldencyclopedia.org). This view is supported by the fact that many African American authors and writers representing other opposition groups consistently reach he tops of the best seller