Talk:Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl/Archive 1

Disputed
The following has been moved here as it was at the top of the main article. TheJC TalkContributions 21:28, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Who ever wrote this article seems not to have read the book. Linda only has one brother! There's some other wrong information in the article-don't use it... -In addition, this seems more like a crappy critique of the book, rather than an objective synopsis.

An objective synopsis is simply impossible. No person is objective no matter how hard they try. Only adding machines and computers are objective. People are not. The status quo objective perspective is relative.68.164.186.23 09:56, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

Is the genre of the work traditionally understood to be a "fugitive slave narrative"?

While an "objective synopsis" is impossible, one can attempt to come as close as possible. As it stands the article has very little background information and engages in a single interpretation of the novel which is intermixed with the synopsis. While that interpretation might be the most academically respected one (I personally do not know), other interpretations need to be represented and seperated from the plot summary.--74.131.21.158 16:37, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Honestly, anything would be better than this. Even somewhat CLOSER to objective would be good. Most of the article focuses solely on the feminism of the story, and while it is important, there are other details in the book that must be placed there as well.Matt White 17:47, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Disputable Paragraph
"The positive images that she uses are singularly feminine: The strength of her mother and grandmother, the slaves that give her information while she is in hiding are all female, and the caring, nurturing nature of Mrs. Bruce. These reinforce the idea that the only place that this woman can turn for help is to other strong women, because male figures like Dr. Flint (her tormentor), Mr. Thorne (who would see her returned to the south in the interest of "patriotism") and Mr. Dodge (who is interested in her return only for the money it would bring to him) are pursuing their self-involved "masculine" interests and are a source of false refuge and respectability."

I might be mistaken, but aren't Uncle Phillip and Peter both major sources of help throughout the story? This paragraph sounds like a broad generalization that oversimplifies the work. 134.173.57.160 (talk) 09:03, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Current work on the article
Not sure if anyone still pays attention to this page, but I am currently editing it for my ENG 235 course on American Literature and would love to hear any feedback and/or suggestions. The current progress of my edits on Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl can be viewed in my sandbox; my sandbox will continue to change as I make more contributions to the article, and these edits will eventually be moved into the main page. A summary of these edits can also be found on my User talk page. In essence, I added citations (nearly doubling the total amount so far), hyperlinks to relevant articles, and a (work-in-progress) section on the purpose of the work. I also rewrote each of the sections for clarity, objectivity, and grammatical correctness. If anyone has any suggestions for improvement (and, in particular, suggestions for sources on the purpose of the work), please let me know. TortugaEnojada (talk) 05:10, 31 October 2014 (UTC)

I have made the aforementioned changes, but will continue watching this page. If anyone has further suggestions for its improvement (or has any issues with what I have done), please let me know. TortugaEnojada (talk) 18:29, 4 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks for your work on this. As this is considered an important 19th-century work, it would be useful for you to consult and use more academic sources than Spark Notes to strengthen the content, opinions and analysis. Editors should rely on more than one source. SparkNotes may be a summary of others' work, but it's better to go to the original sources for citations - and you can learn more. This book is likely discussed in works on early African-American authors, especially women, as well as works on Harriet Jacobs, slave narratives, and treatment of women in slavery.Parkwells (talk) 16:23, 5 March 2015 (UTC)