Oroonoko, Aphra Behn

[AlysonofBathe]

Hi everyone,

So I just finished Oroonoko (some thoughts posted here (http://for-the-reading.blogspot.com/2012/03/oroonoko-aphra-behn.html)) and I was wondering how many of you on the forums had read it? Opinions?

I was expecting an antislavery masterpiece, far ahead of its time, and I was somewhat disappointed; the racism and imperialism is still rampant, and what I found most problematic was that it seems Behn's implication was not so much that slavery is a bad, but rather enslaving someone like Oroonoko (who is continually associated with European imagery) is bad.

Moreover, I wasn't particularly taken with the writing, and I suspect that this has remained a classic more because of its content than its actual artistry.

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Alyson

[OrphanPip]

The representation of race wasn't really the point for Behn. The novel as a genre doesn't really exist in English when Behn is writing. So, the formal examples she has available to her in English are chivalrous romances, biographies, conversion tales, confessions, and sensational news reports.

Why Behn is interesting is that you can see the beginnings of the development of novel conventions in her works. Rather than seeing Oroonoko as a black figure with white features transcribed onto him, we might rather see him as a black figure transcribed into a romance narrative.

The claim to having been there in person is part of this as well, we can think about what these claims mean in terms of proto-realism in prose. Some argue that Oroonoko is the first English novel.

[AlysonofBathe]

I definitely see the influence of the romance; no doubt that much of the Oroonoko/Imoinda interaction was based on the European romance tradition. But I suppose that's my point: because there's no space for the Other in that paradigm, by default Oroonoko becomes associated with a European Caucasian.

Cheers,
Alyson

[OrphanPip]

Sure, but the thing is that Oroonoko shouldn't be read as a failed attempt at emancipatory literature, because it is not meant to be. It is meant to be a novelty, and it is self-conscious in its indulgence of the exotic. Black slavery in general was a novelty to 17th century audiences, and race was not a clearly articulated concept. There was still indentured servitude in England at the time, and the Berber slave trade of captured Europeans was alive and well. So, Behn's conceptions of slavery are not those of a post-19th century racialized one. Reading Oroonoko's features as white racialized seems anachronistic, because it is not clear Behn would have had a conception of black racial characteristics beyond skin colour. Oroonoko is cast not particular as white, but as aristocratic, because Behn would not likely have thought in terms of white and black, but in terms of the base and the noble (particularly given that she was a hardcore monarchist).

[AlysonofBathe]

Behn certainly seems to have a conception of racial stereotypes:

His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth, the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips, which are so natural to the rest of the Negroes.

I think more damning is the contrast between Oroonoko and the rest of the slaves at the conclusion of the text; he's superior, and it's drawn not so much in aristocratic terms but rather European views of African savagery.

Oroonoko is so difficult because of Behn's ambiguity; attempting to understand purpose is pretty impossible.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes I've read Oroonoko - and The Rover. I think that you had too high expectations of it expecting a masterpiece which it was far from! Maybe this is the danger of expecting an anti-slavery work before its time?

I don't agree that it can be classed as the first novel as some have said, I give that to Defoe, Richardson and Fielding together as Ian Watt argues, though it gets a footnote in the development of the form. Average romance, maybe with plenty to discuss, but in terms of the writing, still pretty average.

[The Comedian]

I read this novel in graduate school, so it's been a while. But I think I read it in context of its being a feminist novel, so I remember our discussions much more along the lines of Behn being repressed by the hegemonic patriarchy and that Oroonoko is the symbolic expression of Behn's repression as a female writer in a masculine-centered cultural/historical environment.

But honestly, it's been a long time. Like Neely, I don't remember the writing being that great, but I remember liking the novel for his early historical significance, both in the feminist perspective, the early slavery-awareness perspective, and as an early use of the novel as an emerging genre. I also liked the descriptions of the Oroonoko landscape, but I've always been a sucker for landscape descriptions.

[AlysonofBathe]

I definitely had way too high expectations - I'd heard so many people over the years herald it as so ahead of its time, progressive etc., so I went in thinking it was going to be something that it is clearly not. Oh well, still an interesting read though.

[Whifflingpin]

"I'd heard so many people over the years herald it as so ahead of its time, progressive etc.,"

It may well be ahead of its time, but to decide that you need to compare it with other books of its time, not with your current conceptions. How, in terms of ideas and attitudes, does in compare with the slightly later Robinson Crusoe, for example? (I don't know the answer to that, it's a long time since I read either book.)

[AlysonofBathe]

Well I haven't read Robinson Crusoe, so I can't say. I didn't really analyze it with current conceptions - I had no expectations that it would totally escape notions of superiority, and given that the concept of racism (as we recognize it, anyway) is a fairly recent invention, I hadn't expected Behn to address it any sort of modern sense.

I guess what took me back was that it wasn't really a rebuttal of slavery or imperialism, and I think it could be argued quite successfully that Oroonoko reinforces the system as it existed. This isn't surprising in the historical context, just surprising to me personally given what I had heard prior to reading.

Cheers,
Alyson