Both Equiano’s and Wollstonecraft’s travel narratives could be classified as emancipatory discourses. Not only do both writers use their travel accounts to introduce readers to new customs, places and the sheer adventure of travel, they also use them as a way to represent their emancipation from unbearable constraints in the worlds they are attempting to leave behind them. Equiano chooses (insofar as he has a choice) the life of the seaman to escape the degradation of slavery, but he ultimately frees himself in the full sense as a writer and abolitionist spokesman. Wollstonecraft, in revising her despairing letters to a faithless lover, ultimately frees herself from her emotional dependency and creates a powerful critique of aggrandized masculinity and capitalism. Each of these writers uses different means in writing to liberate themselves, Equiano turning to the traditional conversion narrative, while Wollstonecraft (critical of Equiano’s religious turn) finds herself in the romantic world of nature and the experience of the beautiful and the sublime. Using examples from your readings, compare and contrast the different ways these writers attempt to liberate themselves through the depiction of their travels and speculate on why they choose different means to do so. (Five pages).
Use travel narratives of both of these authors and pull examples from these readings. Essay needs to be grammatically correct, have paragraphs flow, and needs to be organized and cohesive.
