Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
This paper analyzes the narrative structure of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad against the grain of traditional slave narrative conventions. The novel may be categorized as a neoslave narrative, telling the story of a slave girl, Cora, and her escape from a Georgia plantation using the “...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidad de Valladolid
2020-10-01
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| Series: | ES Review |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/esreview/article/view/3974 |
| _version_ | 1818433567679578112 |
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| author | Paula Martín Salván |
| author_facet | Paula Martín Salván |
| author_sort | Paula Martín Salván |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper analyzes the narrative structure of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad against the grain of traditional slave narrative conventions. The novel may be categorized as a neoslave narrative, telling the story of a slave girl, Cora, and her escape from a Georgia plantation using the “Underground Railroad” mentioned in the title. My working hypothesis takes cue from the explicit, literal rendering of the Underground Railroad in the text, which may be considered as symptomatic of Whitehead’s approach to the slave narrative convention, in that his novel discloses or makes visible aspects which, in slave narratives, were left unnarrated. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T16:23:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1c85c85445b74cbe9e1adcfcbac18859 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2531-1646 2531-1654 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T16:23:09Z |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Valladolid |
| record_format | Article |
| series | ES Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-1c85c85445b74cbe9e1adcfcbac188592022-12-21T22:54:45ZengUniversidad de ValladolidES Review2531-16462531-16542020-10-01411113310.24197/ersjes.41.2020.11-33Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground RailroadPaula Martín Salván0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8514-2670Universidad de CórdobaThis paper analyzes the narrative structure of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad against the grain of traditional slave narrative conventions. The novel may be categorized as a neoslave narrative, telling the story of a slave girl, Cora, and her escape from a Georgia plantation using the “Underground Railroad” mentioned in the title. My working hypothesis takes cue from the explicit, literal rendering of the Underground Railroad in the text, which may be considered as symptomatic of Whitehead’s approach to the slave narrative convention, in that his novel discloses or makes visible aspects which, in slave narratives, were left unnarrated.https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/esreview/article/view/3974secrecyslave narrativeunderground railroadunnarratedlinearity |
| spellingShingle | Paula Martín Salván Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad ES Review secrecy slave narrative underground railroad unnarrated linearity |
| title | Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad |
| title_full | Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad |
| title_fullStr | Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad |
| title_full_unstemmed | Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad |
| title_short | Narrative Structure and the Unnarrated in Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad |
| title_sort | narrative structure and the unnarrated in colson whitehead s the underground railroad |
| topic | secrecy slave narrative underground railroad unnarrated linearity |
| url | https://revistas.uva.es/index.php/esreview/article/view/3974 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT paulamartinsalvan narrativestructureandtheunnarratedincolsonwhiteheadstheundergroundrailroad |