- Published: September 27, 2022
- Updated: September 27, 2022
- Level: Undergraduate
- Language: English
- Downloads: 15
Journal College June, Phillis Wheatley’s books should be bought as they deserve much attention because of two reasons. Firstly, they appeal to the reader’s mind. Secondly, they demonstrate the problem of slavery and racial discrimination. The books of this author are very important for sophisticated readers as they help to understand the feelings of black people, who were ignored and lived a miserable life. However, critics go as far as to say that this writer is difficult to analyze and understand as she sounds quite different in her letters and more widely known verses. This happens because Phillis is more antislavery in her private letters and addresses white public practically in all other works. Nevertheless, some people do not treat Wheatley as an antislavery writer. This is one of the racial prejudices I need to face while marketing her books. Moreover, it is still unknown why a slave writer was silent about her miserable fate. There is a point of view that Phillis just wrote the poems that were popular at her time. In any case, nobody has proved this thought yet. The best variant to learn the truth is to buy and read Wheatley’s poems and try to find out this information between the lines of marvellous rhyming. Phillis Wheatley’s books have several important qualities that contribute to the popularity of these writings and make the works of this author very popular on any book market. One of the most essential ones is that Phillis’s works are a complicated blend of African and Anglo-American literary traditions. This writer inherited the features found in her books from West African past. It is not very difficult to note that this poet’s works include her anticipation of the literary conventions of Romanticism. According to the critics’ point of view, Wheatley applied Coleridge’s theories of the secondary imagination. It is very useful to read Phillis’s works for those, who are interested in the history of literature. This poet is known to be a representative of American classical cultural past. That is why each work of hers is significant and can give much information about the development of American literature. References Wheatley, Phillis. (2006). Slave and poet. Minneapolis, U. S.: Compass Point Books.