Carme Manuel – författare

''Nuestra Negra, o esbozos de la vida de una negra libre en una mansión blanca de dos plantas en el Norte'' (1859), de Harriet E. Wilson, es considerada la primera novela escrita y publicada por una afroamericana en Estados Unidos. El relato se nutre de la novela sentimental, de la narrativa de esclavos y de la literatura de conversión religiosa. La historia de las tribulaciones de Frado –abandonada por su madre blanca y obligada a servir como criada en el hogar de una familia blanca en el Massachusetts de las primeras décadas del siglo XIX– constituye una síntesis de ficción y autobiografía. La obra subraya que los afroamericanos libres de los estados norteños, y en particular las mujeres de clase trabajadora, debían luchar, al igual que los esclavos del Sur, por conquistar la libertad frente a la opresión económica, el racismo y la hipocresía cristiana, practicados tanto en el Sur esclavista como en el Norte libre de preguerra.

A partir de la mort de la mare, la protagonista d''aquesta novel·la se sent obligada a enfrontar-se a si mateixa i a decidir sobre el futur que vol viure. Perplexa dins un món que ja no serà mai el mateix i un present ple d''infelicitat, s''obliga a emprendre un viatge anguniós cap al fons de l''ànima, amb l''evocació recurrent dels episodis i sensacions més colpidors de la infantesa: les abraçades cruels, les nines tristes, els gossos de l''horta, les lletres de l''alfabet, les coques de terra, la parla fosca de les tietes, la repressió constant, l''aigua bruta de les sèquies, l''alliberament dolorós dels vincles... Els records del passat perdut, amerats de vegades de dolçor i de vegades de sofriment traumàtic, però sempre embolcallats amb l''estima inqüestionable dels seus, seran imprescindibles perquè puga tornar a nàixer i refer-se en una nova vida.

Following the death of her mother, the unnamed heroine of this novel needs to take a long look at herself and decide the kind of future she wants to live in. Bewildered by a world which will never be the same again and a present full of unhappiness, she forces herself to undertake a painful journey into the depths of her soul. Say Goodbye to That a powerfully described journey which evokes the strong memories and episodes of her childhood; the cruel embraces, the sad dolls, the farmyard dogs, the letters of the alphabet, the mud pies, the dark muttered conversations of her family, the constant repression, the dirty water in the drainage ditches, and the painful casting off of relationships. These memories of a long-lost past, sometimes sweet, sometimes traumatic, but always conditioned by an unquestionable love for her family, will be essential in her quest to be reborn and remade in her new life.

Homenaje a Javier Coy, catedrático jubilado del Departamento de Filología Inglesa y Alemana de la Universitat de València de 1990 a 2000, y uno de los primeros investigadores en introducir los estudios norteamericanos. Se recogen 50 artículos de especialistas en este campo, que reflejan el estado de los estudios sobre la cultura y literatura de los Estados Unidos contemporáneos.

The texts included in this anthology illustrate the wide range of possibilities that abolitionist writings offered to American children during the first half of the nineteenth century. Composing their works under the wings of the antislavery movement, authors responded to the unequal and controversial development of abolitionist politics during the decades that led up to the outbreak of the Civil War. These writers struggled to teach children "to feel right," and attempted to instruct them to actively respond to the injustice of the slavery system as rendered visible by a harrowing visual archive of suffering bodies compiled by both English and American antislavery promoters.Reading was equated with knowledge and knowledge was equated with moral responsibility, and therefore reading about "the abominations of slavery" became an act of emotional personal transformation. Children were thus turned into powerful agents of political change and potential activists to spread the abolitionist message. Invited to comply with a higher law that entailed the breaking of their nation's edicts, they were morally rewarded by the Christian God and approvingly applauded by their elders for their violation of these same American regulations. These texts enclosed immeasurable value for young nineteenth-century Americans to fulfill a more democratic and egalitarian role in their future. Undoubtedly, abolitionist writings for children took away American children's innocence and transformed them into juvenile abolitionists and empowered compassionate citizens.