(Re)Writing the Slave Narrative: Olaudah Equiano, Charles Johnson, and Reader Expectations

Abstract

Literature on slavery can be roughly divided into four categories: slave narratives, pre-abolition novels about slavery written by a white author, contemporary neo-slave narratives written by black authors and post-abolition fiction written by white authors. Slave narratives, which were usually autobiographical, were written or dictated by former or fugitive slaves, while neo-slave narratives are usually written by American and British slave descendants.