SOURCE: Murphy, Geraldine. “Olaudah Equiano, Accidental Tourist.” Eighteenth-Century Studies 27, no. 4 (summer 1994): 551-68.

In the following essay, Murphy examines a late eighteenth-century travel narrative written by a former African slave, contending that the author attempted to show Africa in a favorable light and to achieve personal equity with Europeans.

As most readers will recognize, my title refers to Anne Tyler's recent novel, The Accidental Tourist. Macon, the protagonist, writes travel guides for business types who loathe traveling. The logo for his series is a stuffed living room chair sprouting wings: “While armchair travelers dream of going places, traveling armchairs dream of staying put.” Like his readers, the leery Macon resists travel to territories unknown, psychological or geographical; living in a cocoon of familiar and familial habits to ward off the contingencies of postmodern life, he is an accidental tourist who stubbornly takes the heimlich with him wherever he goes...