Introduction: What is Autoethnographic Literature?

The definition of an autoethnography comes down to defining the three core parts of the word: auto (self), ethno (culture), and graphy (writing). Put more simply, autoethnographic literature refers to a specific kind of writing in which authors grapple with and engage representations that other people or society in general has made of the writer’s own community. This community could include any identity based categorization related to ethnic identity, gender, religion, race, etc. 

According to Mary Louise Pratt’s Arts of the Contact Zone ( in which she introduces the term, autoethnography), “Autoethnographic texts are representations that the so defined “others” construct in response to or in dialogue with [European texts]. Autoethnographic texts are not, then, what are usually thought of as…self-representation. Rather they involve a selective collaboration with and appropriation of idioms of the metropolis or the conqueror. These are merged or infiltrated to varying degrees with indigenous idioms to create self-representations intended to intervene in metropolitan modes of understanding” (Pratt 35). What this means is that autoethnography takes into consideration how, often white people of European descent, have historically represented certain minority communities. It engages the dynamic between those in a position of power (often an European conquering or colonizing group) and those who are or have historically been oppressed by that group.

The autoethnography itself is, in my personal opinion, an empowering space in which the author of the work is able to both acknowledge, combat, disrupt stereotypes that society has perpetuated of their ethnic or other identity-based community, while also doing so in a way that is conscious of the book’s audience as well as the general public’s perception of the minority community in question that the author is writing about.

The following slides will allow on this site will delve into how the authors of There, There and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, by Tommy Orange and Olaudah Equiano, respectively, utilize the autoethnographic content of their works to confront stereotypes made about their individual communities. I will discuss how Tommy Orange uses There, There to address stereotypes of Native Americans, specifically pushed by inaccurate media representations, as well as how Equiano uses his story to acknowledge the public opinion of African slaves by British and American citizens in the 18th century and to challenge their racist perceptions and assumptions.