THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONS OF SLAVE NARRATIVES IN THE NOVEL “THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD” BY ARCH COLSON CHIPP WHITEHEAD

Abstract

The novel “The Underground Railroad” by Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead relates about the times of slavery. On the one hand, the author tries to be faithful to known facts, relying for this on verified sources (archives) and precedent texts (slave narratives). The article provides a comparative analysis of this work and the most famous slave narratives (those by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Ann Jacobs). As a result of the analysis, parallels between them are revealed not only at the level of certain plot elements, but also at the level of lexical means. In addition, it demonstrates how Colson Whitehead uses metaphors from the animal world typical of the classical genre and words from the thematic field “Things” to plausibly show slavery and its destructive impact on slaves. But, on the other hand, the novel under consideration reveals elements of fiction and violations of chronology, what does not correspond to the peculiarities of the narrative structure of classical texts. The article also analyzes those topics that become central to Colson Whitehead’s novel and that the first black writers, for many reasons, could not introduce into their texts – first of all, this refers to the problem of appropriating the identity of the ethnic group and a broad interpretation of the concept of “freedom”. Through the consideration of these issues and reliance on the collective experience of African Americans, the writer creates undoubted links between the described events of the distant past and the situation in modern America. He reminds of the need for dialogue and the search for a common path to the America described by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence.