摘要：所罗门•诺瑟普的自传体小说《为奴十二年》是美国黑人纪实文学的代表作，小说表现 的是对美国黑人悲惨遭遇的同情，也有力地控诉了奴隶制。本论文将从后殖民主义视角出 发，探讨《为奴十二年》中人性的特点。

本文将采用后殖民主义的视角，在美国奴隶纪实文学的框架下来分析《为奴十二年》 的奴隶制，奴隶制下的奴隶主以及黑人奴隶形象。论文认为，《为奴十二年》对于奴隶制中 性、克制的描写，涉及到了奴隶制中更为复杂的面向，即如何看待一个良善的奴隶主与奴 隶制的问题。如果运用后殖民主义的理论，将会发现奴隶制有更为复杂的来源。本研究旨 在对后殖民主义的运用提供新的启示。

关键词 《为奴十二年》 美国黑人 纪实文学 后殖民主义 奴隶制

Title A Study on Twelve Years a Slave in Perspective of Post Colonialism

Abstract：Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northup’s autobiographical novel is the masterpiece of African American documentary literature, which shows deep sympathy for the tragic experiences of African American and issues a searing indictment of slavery.

Under the framework of American slavery documentary literature, this paper will analyze slavery，slave owners and African American slaves from the perspective of post-colonialism.

The paper argues that the neutral restraint description involves a more complex aspect of slavery evoking the awareness of viewing a good slave owner and slavery. If post colonialism theory is applied, slavery is not as evil as may be imagined. The purpose of this study is to provide new insights into the application of post colonialism.

Keywords Twelve Years a Slave African American documentary literature post-colonialism slavery

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Solomon Northup and Twelve Years a Slave 1

1.2 Thesis Structure 2

1.3 Literature Review 2

1.3.1 American slave documentary literature 2

1.3.2 Foreign study 3

1.3.3 Domestic study 4

2 Theoretical Framework 6

2.1 Gramsci’s culture hegemony theory 6

2.2 Fanon’s national culture theory 7

2.3 Foucault's discourse and power” theory 8

3 Post colonialism reading of human nature in the novel 11

3.1 Slave owner 11

3.2 protagonist 12

3.3 Female black slaves 14

Conclusion 16

Acknowledgements 17

References 18

1 Introduction

1.1 Solomon Northup and Twelve Years a Slave

American romance is embodied in slave documentary literature, rather than in the white's novel, as Theodore Parker thinks. He stresses that slave documentary literature is treasure of United States. Solomon Northup is one of representative of slave nonfiction, and his masterpiece Twelve Years a Slave depicts slavery of United States successfully, which is called as one of the most successful slavery nonfiction works.

Solomon Northup was a free man, the son of an emancipated black slave. Until the spring of 1841 he lived a simple, uneventful life with his wife and three children in Upstate New York. Then, suddenly, he fell to a series of bizarre events that made himself a victim of slavery. Northup accepted an offer from two strangers in Saratoga, New York that asked him to catch up with their traveling circus and play in its band. But when the chase ended, Northup had been drugged, beaten, and sold to a slave trader in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, he was shipped to New Orleans, where he was purchased by a planter in the Red River region of Louisiana. For the next twelve years Northup lived as a chattel slave under several masters. He might well have died a slave, except for another set of bizarre circumstances which enabled him to get close to his family and finally he regained his freedom. These elements alone -- the kidnapping, enslavement, and rescue -- were sufficient for a sensational story.

Originally published in 1853, Twelve Years a Slave is regarded as one of the best accounts of American Negro slavery ever written by a slave. With remarkable memory to detail the daily routine and general life of the black slave, Solomon Northup was a shrewd observer for people and events. Moreover, he described cultivation of cotton and sugar in the Deep South in detail and vividly portrayed the world of slavery from the underside. To his own narrative of a long and tragic adventure, Professors Eakins and Logsdon have added significant new details about Northup and the plantation country where he spent most of his time as a slave. Publication of the novel in 1953 was a huge success. 30,000 copies have been sold after its publication in two years, which was 3 times of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself published in 1845. Its publication affected the abolitionist movement and the modern history of the United States, listed as curriculum of American history textbook and college required reading.