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Chapter 7. Bio-graphies in the broad sense

Narrating the lives and genomes of the enslaved
  • Sarah Abel and Gisli Palsson
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A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery
This chapter is in the book A Comparative Literary History of Modern Slavery

Abstract

To what extent do bio-graphical writings, which treat the body and its traces as historical archives in their own right, pose the same problems of interpretation and authorship as traditional biographies? This chapter focuses on the case of Hans Jonathan (1784–1827), whose story has recently been ‘written’ in two different forms: first, in the biography The Man Who Stole Himself (Gísli Pálsson 2016); and second, through the scientific reconstruction of his genome. Our text explores the way biography (in the traditional sense) and various bio-markers (personal names, written genealogies, and DNA sequences) have been used to piece together Hans Jonathan’s life and trajectory and examines to what extent the genome can yield insights into the identities of the enslaved.

Abstract

To what extent do bio-graphical writings, which treat the body and its traces as historical archives in their own right, pose the same problems of interpretation and authorship as traditional biographies? This chapter focuses on the case of Hans Jonathan (1784–1827), whose story has recently been ‘written’ in two different forms: first, in the biography The Man Who Stole Himself (Gísli Pálsson 2016); and second, through the scientific reconstruction of his genome. Our text explores the way biography (in the traditional sense) and various bio-markers (personal names, written genealogies, and DNA sequences) have been used to piece together Hans Jonathan’s life and trajectory and examines to what extent the genome can yield insights into the identities of the enslaved.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part One. Counter-Memories and memories of resistance
  5. Chapter 2. “Some slave is rotting in this manorial lake” 24
  6. Chapter 3. Transforming the colonial scene of writing 40
  7. Chapter 4. Commemorating slavery during apartheid 54
  8. Chapter 5. Gothic tropes and displacements of slave rebellion in Matthew G. Lewis’s Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834) 70
  9. Chapter 6. The Memorial ACTe in Guadeloupe 88
  10. Part Two. The body as material archive
  11. Chapter 7. Bio-graphies in the broad sense 112
  12. Chapter 8. Looking at black bodies in pain 130
  13. Chapter 9. Performing the neurotic 148
  14. Part Three. Fictionality as history writing
  15. Chapter 10. Reimagining slavery from a twenty-first-century perspective 168
  16. Chapter 11. Contemporary Scandinavian colonial-historical fiction 188
  17. Chapter 12. The confluence of fiction, historical memory and oral history 214
  18. Chapter 13. Cinematic slavery 229
  19. Part Four. The cultural bricolage of history
  20. Chapter 14. Carrying memory and making meaning 254
  21. Chapter 15. Contradicting histories, memories, fictions 270
  22. Chapter 16. The cultural memory of Roma slavery in Europe 295
  23. Part Five. Authorship
  24. Chapter 17. “From Mary’s own lips” 314
  25. Chapter 18. Self-expression by black Antillean women 330
  26. Chapter 19. Creating a new abolitionist literature for children 349
  27. Part Six. Creative approaches to the memorialization of slavery
  28. Chapter 20. Hair and body fashion identity narratives in The Return of the Slaves exhibition 368
  29. Chapter 21. Filling the blanks in history 379
  30. Chapter 22. A people made of mud 392
  31. Volume 2. Biographical descriptions 409
  32. Name index 415
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.37.07abe

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Chapter 1. Introduction 1
  4. Part One. Counter-Memories and memories of resistance
  5. Chapter 2. “Some slave is rotting in this manorial lake” 24
  6. Chapter 3. Transforming the colonial scene of writing 40
  7. Chapter 4. Commemorating slavery during apartheid 54
  8. Chapter 5. Gothic tropes and displacements of slave rebellion in Matthew G. Lewis’s Journal of a West India Proprietor (1834) 70
  9. Chapter 6. The Memorial ACTe in Guadeloupe 88
  10. Part Two. The body as material archive
  11. Chapter 7. Bio-graphies in the broad sense 112
  12. Chapter 8. Looking at black bodies in pain 130
  13. Chapter 9. Performing the neurotic 148
  14. Part Three. Fictionality as history writing
  15. Chapter 10. Reimagining slavery from a twenty-first-century perspective 168
  16. Chapter 11. Contemporary Scandinavian colonial-historical fiction 188
  17. Chapter 12. The confluence of fiction, historical memory and oral history 214
  18. Chapter 13. Cinematic slavery 229
  19. Part Four. The cultural bricolage of history
  20. Chapter 14. Carrying memory and making meaning 254
  21. Chapter 15. Contradicting histories, memories, fictions 270
  22. Chapter 16. The cultural memory of Roma slavery in Europe 295
  23. Part Five. Authorship
  24. Chapter 17. “From Mary’s own lips” 314
  25. Chapter 18. Self-expression by black Antillean women 330
  26. Chapter 19. Creating a new abolitionist literature for children 349
  27. Part Six. Creative approaches to the memorialization of slavery
  28. Chapter 20. Hair and body fashion identity narratives in The Return of the Slaves exhibition 368
  29. Chapter 21. Filling the blanks in history 379
  30. Chapter 22. A people made of mud 392
  31. Volume 2. Biographical descriptions 409
  32. Name index 415
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