Dark symbols, obscure signs : God, self, and community in the slave mind / Riggins R. Earl, Jr.

Author/creator Earl, Riggins R.
Format Book
Publication InfoMaryknoll, N.Y. : Orbis Books, ©1993.
Descriptionxiv, 226 pages ; 24 cm.
Subjects
African Americans--Southern States. --Religion.
Enslaved persons--Southern States. --Religion.
Racism--Religious aspects. --Christianity.
Racism--Biblical teaching.
Enslaved persons--Southern States. --Folklore.
Southern States--Race relations.

SeriesThe Bishop Henry McNeal Turner studies in North American Black religion ; v. 7
Bishop Henry McNeal Turner studies in North American Black religion ; vol. 7. ^A664578
Contents Introduction: Revaluing the Slave Experience -- Interpretations of Primary Sources -- Primary Intentions -- 1. The Slave: A Child of God? The Foundational Problem -- The Ideal Response Types -- The Naturalist Type -- The Ideal Christian Master Type -- The Hermeneutical Circle of Double Negativity -- 2. Duty, Bondage, and Pedagogy -- Bondage and Christian Duty -- The Marginal Servant Class -- Christian Apologists, Conscience, and Duty -- Duties and Methods of Pedagogy -- Conversion to Christ and a Model Slave -- Oral Instructions and Christian Servility -- Sambo and Toney: The Stereotypical Dialogue -- Baptism as the Final Rite of Passage into Servitude -- 3. The Self in the Self Response -- Creation Stories of the Slave Community -- Adam and Eve -- The Cave Story -- The Black Body as the Devil's Work -- Conversion and Transcendence -- Morte's Conversion Story -- An Embodied Soul Experience -- Hell's Dark Door -- The Timeless Place of Heaven -- Moral Empowerment: Doing and Being for Others -- 4. The Spirituals: Community in Song -- Three Pedagogical Types -- The Communal Confessional Type -- The Individual Confessional Type -- The Dialogic Type -- 5. Ex-Slaves Tell Their Stories -- The Right to Tell Their Own Stories -- White Readers' Responses -- Autobiography and Self-Autonomy: Two Dominant Themes -- "I Think and Feel, Therefore I Am" -- Countering the "Mammy" and "Jezebel" Stereotypes -- Styles of Autobiographical Narration -- Unconventional -- Conventional
Contents 6. Brer Rabbit Stories: Weak Body and Strong Mind -- Facts and Fiction -- Brer Rabbit and the Male Slave -- High John and Brer Rabbit: The Making of a Myth -- Brer Rabbit: A White Man's Version -- "Sense Do Not Stand for Goodness" -- "They Will All Come Slippin' In" -- "This Is All the Far the Tale Goes" -- Brer Rabbit: Black Perspectives -- Brer Rabbit as Told by Simon Brown -- Brer Rabbit as Told by Congaree River Blacks -- Self-Preservationist and Ethical Realism -- God, Creation, and Brer Rabbit -- Work, Play, and God --The Ethic of Playful Versatility -- God, Rabbit, and Play -- Philosophical Implications: The Myth about Laughter -- 7. Foundational Elements: Self, God, and Community -- Four Ideal Types of the Narrative Self -- Conversion and the Soul Narrative Self -- The Autobiographic Genre and the Rational Narrative Self -- The Trickster Genre and the Playful Narrative Self -- The Spiritual Song and the Dialogical Narrative Self -- Implications for Further Study.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references (p. 203-220) and index.
LCCN 93011152
ISBN0883449161 :

Availability

Library Location Call Number Status Item Actions
Joyner General Stacks BR563.B53 E37 1993 ✔ Available Place Hold