Intertextuality in Equiano. A Testimony of Rational Dissent

Jonathan Vogel

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Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, University of Wupper...

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Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Other, grade: 1,7, University of Wuppertal (Anglistik), course: Race and Gender, 1770-1830, language: English, abstract: At a time when morality has been increasingly separated from the aspect of the supernatural and placed within the human being himself, far and foremost by philosophers like Jean-Jacque Rousseau, Equiano tries to connect these two strands of thought. He combines religious and enlightened ideals in order to form one coherent moral argument against the toleration of slavery. In this paper, I will analyse how intertextual elements, more specifically explicit single-text references, are implemented by the author and how this can provide clarification on how Equiano is able to unite these two, actually opposing, world views in his argumentation. "Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they." Although Olaudah Equiano would probably have agreed to this statement and many other ideas by Rousseau, he would not have quoted the French philosopher and forerunner of the Enlightenment in his Interesting Narrative. If one were to arrange the individual years of human history according to the weight of the historical events, the year 1789 would be assigned a special significance. The worldwide sense of mission of the values of the French Revolution and the Déclaration des Droits de l'homme et du Citoyen mark the culmination of an era in which the understanding of humanity and what it means to be human was redefined. These maxims were the result of "the assurance of a universal sense of right and wrong" and the conviction that "the individual's right to happiness" (Gura) was men's greatest purpose. Moreover, this body of thought was detached from the connection to a supernatural being, but was rather based on a "reliance on human sympathy or 'sentiment' as the catalyst for moral choice" and "encouraged the belief that each individual had the power to control his or her own destiny" (Gura). The time was marked by a philosophical shift from "rigid theology" to "the values of Deism and moral naturalism" (Ruland & Bradbury). Therefore, people "were less interested in the metaphysical verities of introspective divines than in the progress of ordinary individuals, relating now to their fellow beings through emotions and experiences they shared" (Gura).