Olaudah Equiano, Englishness, and the Negotiation of Raced Gender

Jocelyn Stitt

From its initial publication in 1789, the Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself caused controversy over the identity of the writer and the politics behind the narrative. One of only six surviving slave narratives written before 1800, the Narrative describes Equiano's enslavement in Africa as a young boy in the 1750s, his employment as a sailor and soldier on British ships, his conversion to Christianity, and his life as a freeman in London and elsewhere, [1] In the June 1789 edition of The Monthly Review, one of the first essays about Equiano's story, the reviewer states, "We entertain no doubt of the general authenticity of this very intelligent African's interesting story; though it is not improbable that some English writer has assisted him in the compliment, or at least, the correction of his book: for it is sufficiently well written" (551). Although generally favorable to the Narrative, the reviewer must reinscribe the boundaries between African and Englishman by implying that no African subject could have written the narrative by himself.
Like The Monthly Review, modern literary critics foreground questions of Equiano's identity, his accommodation of British sensibilities, and his glorification of Christianity. As Robin Sabino and Jennifer Hall succinctly state: "Equiano has been characterized variously as a fraud, a plagiarist, an apologist, a hero, a capitalist, and a guerrilla fighter" (5). Some scholars question the authenticity of Equiano's African roots, while other see manifestations of an Ibo world view and language in his narrative. Some find his acceptance of Christianity and of English superiority distasteful, while others see it as a strategic move of resistance.  [2]
Rather than assuming what the identities invoked in the Narrative signify, I propose questioning the concepts of identity as related in the text. I contend that within recent Equiano scholarship, both Englishness and maleness are "unmarked categories," a term used in feminist theory to denote categories taken to be the norm which do not require explanation. [3] Unmarked categories are constructed through comparison with the non-normative other. I interrogate Englishness and masculinity to explore the identity Equiano so reveres—the English gentleman