Textual economies : the performative self in the writings of John Newton, Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince

Abstract

This thesis brings together the writings of John Newton, Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince, three figures from both sides of the black/white, slave/slaver, male/female divides who were prominent in the history of British slave abolition and emancipation. Through this original selection, this thesis examines the performativity of the self as articulated in their writings and how this performativity engages with the culture of eighteenth-century slavery and abolition.