Sentimental Confessions

Reviews / Votes

Jocelyn Moody makes an extremely important contribution to the study of spiritual narratives by offering a new theoretical framework that focuses much more self-consciously on theological dimensions. . . . By carefully detailing the formal, ideological, and theological complexities of spiritual narratives, Moody provides a richly historicized analysis of the difficulties that confronted women during slavery and its aftermath. -- <i>American Literature</i> [A] rewarding and captivating body of work. Moody forced me to grieve for my colonial Victorian ancestors and applaud them as they transcended racism and patriarchal restrictions. Her writing brought alive the overwhelming hardships and passions of these women. -- <i>Black Issues Book Review</i> Moody has brought together pre- and post-emancipation narratives that offer readers an opportunity to reexamine the lives of several women-free and enslaved-whose spiritual and secular writings are, in the main, concerned with the humanity of their subjects as well as with Moody's desire to give these women spiritual significance in black women's literary history. -- Lucille P. Fultz * <i>Biography</i> * Moody clearly articulates her objective and thesis in both her introduction and her conclusion. She asserts that the evangelical narratives of 19th-century black holy women have been sorely neglected by scholars interested in African American women's literary tradition, and argues for an appreciation of these narratives because they are what they claim to be-holy texts. -- <i>Choice</i> Scholars who previously had to settle for occasional and hard-to-find critical studies of early African American women's prose writings will be delighted to see this monograph. . . . Moody is more interested in how these women reclaim their voices, asserting textual authority to narrative individual experience. -- <i>Christianity and Literature</i>