OROONOKO Links and Quiz #1:UPDATE

So, now you've read half of Aphra Behn's OROONOKO. Behn, as we discussed in class, was quite the scandal in 1600's England. She was a spy, spent time in debtors prison, may have invented a husband, and may or may not have spent time in Surinam. Though scandalous for her time, Behn blasted open the doors for women writers.

OROONOKO details the life of a royal slave in Surinam (just south of Venezuela). It is a romantic story, and also, for modern readers, troubling in its eurocentricity. Here's a full e-text of OROONOKO, in case you don't want to lug your book around, or haven't bought one yet.

For our first reading quiz on Friday, I'd like for you to visit the Smithsonian's African Voices website.. It's a very comprehensive and cool site about Africa, from humanity's origins, through the slave trade, to the present. Spend some time there, click around, learn some new things, and then, tackle this question in a TYPED and FULLY DEVELOPED PARAGRAPH:

What are your feelings about this particular narrator, a white woman, telling Oroonoko's story? After reading both OROONOKO and perusing the Smithsonian website, do you think she shares any of Oroonoko's experiences? What's troubling about the perspective used in the story? Use specific examples from the text to defend your answers.

p.s. For fun, check out the two images below. What might those tell us about the perception of race in the 1600's and 1700's? That second image carries the date of 1776. Cool, huh?

Aphra Behn


A flyer for a stage production of OROONOKO

p.p.s. Here's the link to Wikipedia's entry on Noble Savage. Note the portrait to the right--a visual representation of the idea that indigenous people were "noble" and yet "savage."