The Legacy of Trauma in The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

Yıl 2025, Cilt: 35 Sayı: 2, 333 - 347, 18.12.2025

Henrieta Krupa

https://doi.org/10.26650/LITERA2024-1594177

https://izlik.org/JA64PR43EW

Öz

This article examines the role of trauma in shaping Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Instead of revisiting debates about the autobiography’s authenticity, the study proposes that the ambiguities, silences, and inconsistencies within the text can be read as traces of trauma rather than signs of fabrication. Drawing on trauma theory, this study explores how Equiano’s efforts to reconstruct his childhood experiences of captivity and enslavement reveal features commonly associated with trauma narratives, including emotional detachment, dissociation, fragmentation, and narrative gaps. Such textual patterns reflect not only the difficulty of representing traumatic memory but also the coping mechanisms of a child subjected to extreme suffering and displacement. In this light, the narrative’s apparent discontinuities emerge as powerful testimony to the psychological burden of enslavement and the limits of language in articulating atrocity. By applying a trauma-informed perspective, the article underscores the importance of sensitivity when interpreting slave narratives and highlights how trauma may shape both memory and literary expression. Ultimately, this approach offers a more nuanced reading of Equiano’s text, situating it within broader discussions of trauma, identity and survival, while recognising its enduring significance within the African diaspora.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Autobiography , captivity , Olaudah Equiano , The Interesting Narrative , trauma

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