The Complexities of Phillis Wheatley's Portrait

The Complexities of Phillis Wheatley’s Portrait

November 17, 2023
1:00pm ET
Virtual Event | Free

In the fall of 1773, the Senegambian-born, American-enslaved poet Phillis Wheatley was the first Black woman to publish a book in the transatlantic world. In addition to thirty-nine poems authored by Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, features an engraved frontispiece portrait of the author. In tandem with Wheatley’s poetry, this portrait was meant to attest to the material existence of an enslaved person who, by virtue of her intelligence, erudition, and imagination, exploded slavery’s foundational claim that enslaved persons were objects to be bought and sold. Dr. Jennifer Chuong’s talk explores both the ways in which the portrait supports these aims and the ways in which it undercuts them. Understanding its doubled representation—of Wheatley as a person deserving of freedom, on the one hand, and of Wheatley as a person whose race precludes full subjective recognition, on the other—provides a key to understanding her vexed reception, from her time to ours. Join us for the culminating event in our year of programming celebrating the 250th anniversary of Phillis Wheatley’s seminal work.

Sponsored by the Visual Culture Program

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