Equiano

If Equiano is sometimes occupying the position of Christian masochist, is he doing so all the time?

Romantic Loves: A Response to _Historicizing Romantic Sexuality_ 2006

Potkay and Burr also draw attention to an inaccuracy in Equiano's claim to have seen

Notes on 'The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire' 2006

Without its counter-balancing national history, the book in Equiano and George's hands establishes, in

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

However, the text in Equiano's hands moves in an altogether different direction.

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

What remains is the harsh judgement of unlegitimated and unsublimated complicity, for George is ultimately not granted access to such an imagined community in Equiano's narrative.

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

If George and his family have sold out for short term gains in the scene of colonial conflict, then Equiano is attempting to generate a reconstituted social body — a kind of human portfolio, which will accede to its full surplus value in the longest term imaginable — eternity.

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

George's conversion they instantiate a fundamental shift in Equiano's masochistic fantasies, not because they impede George's identification with the invisible church — that only suspends Equiano's reward — but because their actions physically, psychically and politically separate George and

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

It is a rare assertion of racial community in Equiano's text, one which he highlights with a footnote that identifies himself with the biblical followers of "Apher ... who were called Africans" (293).

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

Through George's unachieved "conversion," Equiano is able to savour his future status in a post-revolutionary state, in a post-imperial cultural order.

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006

The radical gesture embedded in Equiano's Christian masochist deployment of the Judges allegory is his suggestion that these seemingly opposed strategies — the calling forth of

The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire 2006