We read several travel narratives
this semester, including Aphra Behn’s Oronooko,
Lady Mary’s The Turkish Embassy Letters,
and finally, Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting
Narrative. A topic that we debated across all of these texts is whether the
authors have given true accounts of what they experienced.
It is interesting to me how the
genre of a piece of work influences how an audience receives it. Because these works are regarded as travel
narratives, readers expect truth from them. I can understand why authors would
choose this genre. By attaching “truth” to the work, an author might be able to
influence readers more easily. This is especially clear in Equiano’s case,
where he writes his narrative in order to encourage abolition amongst an English
audience. Not only do readers expect truth, but also closely inspect the text, examining
its minute details, in order to determine just how much of it is factual and
how much of it is fiction. I wonder if this sort of reading strays away from
giving the text the attention it deserves. I also wonder how different our
reading might be if these texts were not advertised as travel narratives, or
“histories” like in Aphra Behn’s case. My interest, and concern, is in reading
a work for the sole purpose of dissecting it in order to determine how much of
it is valid.
I located an article titled “Facts
into Fiction: Equiano’s Narrative Reconsidered” by S.E. Ogude, a scholar in
African literature, who views Equiano’s Narrative
as being largely fictional. Ogude makes
a fascinating distinction between the narrator Equiano and the commentator
Equiano, referring to them as two different characters. Ogude says, “The
narrator tends to be fictional in his accounts, while the commentator shows
evidence of the historical man” (Ogude 31). Ogude essentially claims, “much to
[his] disappointment,” that most of the “facts” in Equiano’s narrative were
collected from his readings of travel literature (33). Ogude doubts that
Equiano, kidnapped at the age of 10, would have such a clear and detailed
memory of the life and customs of his people in Africa. Ogude writes,
“Equiano’s geography is directly derived from eighteenth century geography of
Africa as it was then conceived by European writers” (33). Several scholars
have examined Equiano’s Narrative in similar fashion to Ogude, (refer to our secondary
reading of John Bugg’s discussion of Vincent Carretta’s claim that Equiano was
actually born in South Carolina, not Africa).
My question is, does it really
matter? If Equiano was indeed born in South Carolina, does the value of his
experience diminish? Equiano is a voice for silenced slaves; his story is
indicative of the struggle that all slaves were subject to. If he had the
opportunity to draw awareness to a revolting and inhumane institution, possibly
resulting in an increase of abolitionists, why not craft a fictional story? No
doubt, there is still truth in fiction! We read plenty of fictional novels and
regard the concepts, experiences, characters, etc., as mirrors of true human
experience. Why should the genre of a text eradicate the value of an
experience?
Personally, I am more interested in
what the author has written and not whether what she/he has written actually
happened. If readers are skeptical of a text’s validity, instead of tying the
book to a chair and beating the “truth” out of it, I think it is more
beneficial that they question why the author decided to sell the story in that
genre. Then we might understand the text from a broader and more important
context.
Interestingly enough, as I was writing
this blog entry, I decided to check Facebook (that’s not the interesting part).
At the top of the page was a photo submitted by HONY (Humans of New York) that
showcases a woman reading a Maya Angelou novel. The caption reads: "I tend to be cynical about a lot of things, but Maya
Angelou is somebody that no matter how much I pick her apart, she still has
integrity. She was a victim of incest and rape, and she worked as a stripper. And now she's a literary icon and Nobel
Laureate. It goes to show that life is cumulative, and you can't devalue any
type of experience."
Way too relevant! Interesting timing, too. I had to share : )
Ogude, S. E. "Facts into Fiction: Equiano's Narrative
Reconsidered." Research in African Literatures 13.1
(1982): 31-43.
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