'I ain' mad now and I know taint no use to lie': The Framing, Editing and Manipulation of Emotions in 1930s Ex-Slave Documents

Wilson, BR (2019) 'I ain' mad now and I know taint no use to lie': The Framing, Editing and Manipulation of Emotions in 1930s Ex-Slave Documents PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.

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Abstract

This thesis explores how emotion was framed, performed, repressed and politicised in textual, oral and visual ex-slave documents produced in the 1930s in the United States: the Florida WPA interviews; sound recordings and photographs created by black American linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner; John Lomax’s folklore recordings; and Ruby Lomax’s photographs of former slaves. These sources often include profound emotional content, however, few sustained and explicit analyses of feeling within these documents have been undertaken. Building on methodological approaches developed in slavery studies, emotional history, visual studies, critical race studies and oral history; utilising a ‘holistic’ and integrated approach to the ex-slave documents; and paying particular attention to the personal, cultural and political dynamics at the moment of source creation, this thesis develops and models a critical methodology that can be used to reveal the various complications associated with using these source sets to provide access to the emotional experiences of the enslaved.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Histories, Languages and Cultures
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	06 Jan 2020 10:30
Last Modified:	01 Jan 2024 02:30
DOI:	10.17638/03053691
Supervisors:	Kenny, Stephen ORCID: 0000-0002-2719-1236 Heath, Deana Donert, Celia
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3053691
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