Kelley Sanford

AML 3613-0M01
September 12, 2014
Assignment #2
Frederick Douglass Transcendence above Convention
James Olneys conventions are elements that are so regularly used they have become
required by the trend of slave narratives. Olney writes that Frederick Douglass narrative
paradoxically transcends the slave narrative mode while being at the same time its fullest, most
exact representative (Olney 154) and thus simultaneously operates as master outline and
exception. Douglass transcendence over conventions equates to refutation in instances like
Olneys declared convention that slavery is represented as an institutionalized, external reality
rather than a particular and individual lifeknown internally and subjectively (154).
Douglass refutation lies in his internal struggle with literacys influence on his perception of his
condition, writing that he sometimes felt that literacy was a curse rather than a blessing. It had
given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedyIn moments of agony, I envied
my fellow slaves for their stupidity (Douglass 40). Conventionally, discussing literacy in slave
narratives is meant to both incite empathy for the mental oppression slaves endured and enable
an integral claim of existence, both purposes being positive and tactical. Therefore, the slave
representing slavery externally portrays literacy with particular abolitionist strategy whereas
Douglass does not belittle his personal hopelessness derived from knowledge nor the counterproductive idea that literacy, even as the idealized key to freedom, may not be worth it. In this
expression of internal struggle, Douglass transcends convention to achieve writing a narrative of
a life, not a narrative to promote abolition, which is the confine Olney argues that most slave
narratives fall into. Word Count: 250.

Works Cited
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by
Himself. Boston: The Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Documenting the American South.
1999. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. September 12,
2014 <http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass/douglass.html >.
Olney, James. I Was Born Slave Narratives, Their Status as Autobiography and as Literature.
The Slaves Narrative. Davis, Charles T., and Gates, Henry Louis. New York, NY:
Oxford University Press, 1955. 148-73. Print.