Textual Negotiations with Readers in Equiano's The Interesting Narrative : The expectations of an African autobiography author in the late 18th Century abolitionist movement

Sammanfattning: Authors of slave narratives faced expectations beyond those of the authors of most other autobiographical texts. Olaudha Equiano's The Interesting Narrative nonetheless found both considerable success in his lifetime and lasting recognition for its contribution to the abolitionist cause. This essay will look at the relations, ideas and expectations that Equiano had to navigate when writing the book, and whether or not he adapated the text to them. The analysis will make use of Kerry Sinanan's research into slave narratives and abolitionist literature, Vincent Carretta's writings about Equiano and The Interesting Narrative, as well as Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson's theory of autobiographical writing and their schema of autobiographical acts. The Interesting Narrative contains several instances of conflicts between the interests Equiano navigated when writing it, and makes compromises between these interests in order to satisfy the reader, while at the same time resisting sterotypes of Africans held at the time.