Before break I went to a lecture on neo-slave narratives that was presented by a former Geneseo undergraduate. The idea was that I was supposed to sit through the lecture and then write a paper about what it had taught me, for extra credit. Before you read it though, if you take anything away from it I hope it’s this:
1) Titles for lectures can be next to useless. Maybe they change once you go to grad school.
and 2) This class is only the beginning of our careers as English majors.
Here is that paper.
I decided to attend the “The Neo-Slave Narrative and the Novel” seminar, presented by Stephanie Iasiello, and although I can’t say that I absorbed much from the lecture itself I think I learned a fair bit of valuable information while I was there. First what I learned from the lecture though, since that’s what this paper is technically supposed to be about.
I was only half right when I said absorbed very little from the lecture. What the answer really depends on is how you evaluate that absorption. If I were to be graded on the percentage of how much I learned divided by the total amount of information presented I would absolutely fail this assignment. So much of what was discussed was, as we say in class, part of a conversation that I wasn’t prepared to engage in. The actual title of the seminar itself was misleading, I think. For the most part the lecture focused around one particular neo-slave narrative, a book called The Long Song, by Andrea Levy. The paper that Stephanie Iasiello was presenting was clearly intended for an audience who had read that novel along with several other neo-slave narratives and Levy novels. Most of the finer details of the seminar went astronomically, irretrievably over my head. However, if I were to be graded on how much I learned without any sort of frame of reference I think that I would earn significantly higher marks — because I did learn quite a bit from the forty minute lecture. For example, I learned that there is a woman named Andrea Levy. I also learned that she has written a novel called The Long Song, along with several others. I learned that there is a genre of narratives known as slave narratives, and even a revival movement known as neo-slave narratives. But I think the most valuable things that I learned were things that had nothing to do with the content of Iasiello’s paper.
This was my very first experience with most aspects of this type of seminar and it was a shock to say the least. I was thrown into a room full of people who were for the most part much, much smarter than me — especially with regard to the specific topic of discussion — and I listened to a lecture that I only understood about a quarter of. This was not an everyday experience for me. This was very much the opposite of everyday. This was baffling and bizarre and scary and horribly real. What made it all the more horrifying was the realization that this would not be an isolated experience. That, as an English major, this would be my reality. This, I realized, was the future that our class discusses in their blog assignments.
Of course, the information that I got from the lecture itself is valuable to what we’re discussing in class. Cane is neither a slave narrative nor a neo-slave narrative but a close cousin to both in that it discusses the tragedies of black life in America, even if it does take place a few years — or even centuries — after the typical timeframe of those genres. The themes of The Long Song are no doubt related and if I were to read the novel I’m sure I would be able to see the conversation taking place between the two. However, I would argue that what I learned about the format of these literary seminars and the lives of English majors is far more valuable. It will serve me well for the next four years and beyond. The next time that I attend a seminar like this, I won’t make the same mistakes that I made this time in not understanding the nature of the seminar prior to attending it. The time after that, I won’t repeat whatever mistakes I made the previous time. And so on. And so on, so that when I finally do get to the point in my college career when attending these seminars is not only helpful but mandatory, I think I’ll finally be ready for them.