Mary Louise Pratt's "Art's of the Contact Zone"

Baker is saying that those who attempted to write of their experiences as a slave faced the daunting task of not offending the white culture or risk not being heard. This was the basic conclusion that I came to when I first read this text, but it was not until later that I came to understand this societal pressure to write in a certain way is still just another form of oppression. To define this …

…narrator. I propose this is not the case with Harriet Jacobs work. I have shown that societal pressure forced Jacobs to present her work in this fashion; she had to present her narrative in such a way as to not offend the intended reader. This pressure to conform was certainly not as traumatic as being a slave, but it must have shown Harriet Jacobs that she was not an equal, that she was still oppressed.