노예 제도와 종교 프레드릭 더글러스의 『자서전』에 나타난 수사학적 전략 = Slavery and Religion: Rhetorical Strategies in Frederick Douglass`s Narrative

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Appreciating the insights provided by various new perspectives related to poststructurallst theory, my intention in this paper is to focus on Douglass`s rhetorical strategies in his first autobiography, which is also one of the most famous of the antebellum slave narratives. This paper explores Douglass`s religious rhetoric employed in his Narrative, especially the puntan rhetoric which he deliberately brings into his text in order to criticize both the inhumane system of slavery and the religious hypocrisy of Southern slaveholders. The Narrative is a text full of conflicting tensions arising from the cultural constraints within which the author found himself. Douglass, in order to control his own narrative, had to overcome the attempts of white abolitionists to silence the author`s voice. Northern abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison focused on expunging the peculiar institution rather than supporting individualized life stones of fugitive slaves. Douglass`s rhetorical strategics in the Narrative are largely twofold. On the one hand, Douglass deploys the rhetoric of the puritan Jeremiad to distinguish between true and false Christianity. He presents himself as a true and suffering Christian whose onward progress toward freedom is explained by a special interposition of divine Providence. Douglass, as America`s black Jeremiah, decries the sin of slavery and warns white Americans of God`s imminent punishment On the other hand, the Narrative records his transformation from an identity as a chattel slave to a new identity as a human being. Douglass`s fight with the slavebreaker, Edward Covey, signifies his rebirth as a heroic American, namely as a legitimate heir to the American Revolutionary heroes. Douglass affirms his American self as a free and independent human being both by criticizing Garrison`s religion-centered approaches to the institution of slavery and by appropriating the ideals of democratic revolution to the cause of the black slave. Explicit celebration of his personal achievement both as a famous black abolitionist and as a successful American becomes evident in his later autobiographies.