I'm afraid I'm not as connected to Defoe's novel as I was to Behn's Oroonoko. Journal of the Plague Year strikes me as a sort of fever dream, in which Defoe
wanders through plague-stricken London, observing the ravages of the disease. Amazingly, despite wandering here and there throughout the stricken areas, he never contracts the plague. (Convenient, no?) I think there are some interesting observations to made about Defoe's treatment of what he views as ethical violations during the plague-time. Defoe reports snippets of hearsay and rumor, as well as bits of pronouncements and news article, and he often mentions the crimes he has heard rumors of. Defoe relates hearing of houses plundered, servants left to die, and neighbors turning against each other, but he is quick to reassure the reader that these are only rumors, and besides he has known of many instances of kindness and goodwill. He relates an incident in which he returns to check on his brother's property and finds a group of women trying on hats from his brother's warehouse of goods. Although Defoe's narrative is rather detached for the most part, a sense of incredulousness and indignation seems to permeate this event. Defoe seems to shy away from acknowledging the breakdown in public order that occurred with the first wave of plague to hit London. (The plague returned to Europe repeatedly over several decades, but not to this extent.)
Another question I would like to ask of Defoe's novel is, what exactly was his purpose in writing it? An historical account? Defoe mentions God often in his work, but I have a hard time accepting Journal as a testimony of God's mercy, considering the ravages of the plague. I haven't entirely finished the work, but I read the stanza Defoe includes as H.F.'s parting words. Is H.F., after all, just delighting in surviving the plague unscathed? He seems to make no deeply emotional connections to anyone affected by the sickness. He mentions no family members or friends killed by it. Perhaps he is merely serving a journalist to record this extraordinary historical event.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Defoe and Ethics of Plague-Morality and Sickness.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Alphra Behn: Unbiased Narrator or Omniscient Story-teller?
As Grace mentioned, readers of Oronooko can’t help but to become enthralled in the writing style that Behn incorporates into the narrative. Her style is captivating, which is important because, as readers, we must rely on a well-informed narrator to guide us through the narrative since there are no clear divisions and it at times can be confusing to follow. However, as a reader, I found myself also questioning some areas where I thought Behn was blurring the line between fiction and fact, which led me to further ponder the question of her role as narrator. Ultimately, is she an unbiased narrator, strictly adhering to Oronooko’s account or is she an omniscient story-teller, crafting her story from various accounts and adding details as she saw fit, or is she a combination of the two?
One of her most important assets is the detail with which she spends describing the various characters. We not only know what their outward physical appearances are, but we are given a glimpse into their inner workings. Behn alludes to this notion in her dedicatory to Lord Maitland: “An ill hand may diminish, but a good hand cannot augment history. A poet is a painter in his way, he draws to the life, but in another kind; we draw the nobler part, the soul and mind” (3). This level of detail enables readers to have a well-rounded perspective of each character and allows them to make judgments for themselves regarding these individuals. For example, several people have noted the detail with which she describes Oronooko. She uses the same level of detail when describing those around him as well, as seen in the description of Oronooko’s new owner, Mr. Trefry. Of his physical appearance, she writes: “… so extraordinary in his face, his shape and mein, a greatness of look, and haughtiness in his air” (41).
However, I would argue that there are areas where, I find myself questioning Behn as the narrator. For example, Behn does not meet Oronooko until he is on Surinam. Yet, the level of detail in the first half of the novel does not change or become greater in the second half. Also, with regard to her level of detail, how did Behn so accurately know the feelings of her characters? For instance, she writes: “Trefry soon found that he [Oronooko] was something greater than he confessed; and from that moment began to conceive so vast an esteem for him that he ever after loved him as his dearest brother, and showed him all the civilities due to so great a man” (42). Unless Behn was present at that exact moment, I find it hard to believe that she knew exactly how Trefry felt. Yet, the narrator does not appear to be unsure of herself when making this declaration.
Thus, I would argue that Behn’s narrative is somewhat biased in the sense that we are only being told the story through Oronooko’s eyes, and as such, it is a limited perspective. That said, Behn does her best as an artist to paint an accurate portrayal of Oronooko’s life as he has told it to her. Although there are some embellishments and exaggerations, these are elements of the story that make it so great and have allowed it to be passed on through generations of readers. Nonetheless, from the simple fact that we are still reading Oronooko today, it can be said that Behn, as a narrator, achieved her ultimate goal. That is, creating a narrative with the “power to preserve this great man” (5).
Behn's narrator
I found Oroonoko to be a particularly interesting read because I think it is a story told in a simple way that strikes a cadence with its readers. As we briefly discussed in class on the 23rd, as a reader, I can hear the voice of the narrator quite clearly throughout the story. It is as if the narrator wishes to tell the story of Oroonoko and Imoinda but wants us to know only as much as she knows, or in the light that she chooses. It seems as if she wants her audience to learn to idolize Oroonoko as she does without giving the reader much of an opportunity to explore any other option or opinion about the main character in her story.
Oroonoko is presented from the very beginning as "the hero himself," "[a] great man" (9), framing the opinions of the readers before the character is even introduced. The narrator then describes him lavishly, praising his appearance, his character and his knowledge as she tells her story. In fact, it almost seems as if she puts off her story to appropriately give her character the accolade she deems him worthy of. In listening to her voice, one can begin to see her (the narrator) as a character in the overall story itself, and hence the story Oroonoko could be seen as a story within a story.
We learn to understand the narrator and to appreciate the magnitude of the role she plays in the unfolding of the tragic story of the prince who became a slave. Even when Oroonoko performed acts of bravery and maybe even heroism - like when he killed the tiger - as a reader, I felt like I was not permitted to properly "see" and "hear" this gallant act as plainly as the narrator saw and heard it, for the "sounds" of the act were drowned out in my ears by the narrator's words. It almost seemed to me like the narrator's purpose of telling the story was more to tell of her affiliation to this character who she claims is "worthy of a better wit and a more sublime wit than [hers]."
Considering the role the narrator played in telling Oroonoko's story, it had me wondering how the story would have been told had it not been told from her point of view. It also had me wondering if I would have truly thought of Oroonoko as a hero had the story been told from an unbiased perspective.
Also, the tragic death of Oroonoko caught my attention. I think it is interesting and even significant that he was not so brutally executed by any of those he had planned to take vengeance upon. I think it is even interesting how his executioner was identified as "an Irishman... a fellow of absolute barbarity..." (76), a man brought from elsewhere to commit this gruesome act. Oroonoko murdered his wife and even severed her head from her corpse for the sake of the vengeance he wished to commit. In the end, he used the knife that had spilled his wife's blood on himself to mutilate his flesh and open his bowels, rather than for revenge. He also used it on an over-zealous Englishman and on Tuscan, who had been for a brief time, a friend. I think it is ironic how he met his death at the hands of a stranger to the animosity and intrigues of the lives of the slaves and their masters, and how Imoinda's death (murder) seemed almost to have been meaningless.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Final Project: Assignment Sheet
This term, each student will have the option of completing either a traditional seminar essay of 15 pages in length, or a hypertext project.
Traditional seminar essay option:
Your seminar essay for this course should be 12-15 pages in length. It should give a sustained literary analysis of one or more primary texts assigned within a literary-historical or theoretical context provided by the secondary material read in class. Outside of the secondary material read in class, your essay must include at least one additional reputable secondary source. Your seminar essay must substantially engage with both primary and the secondary sources, though the secondary sources should above all be contextual.
Hypertext option:
Alternatively, you may construct a hypertext of one assigned reading that presents a sustained literary and/or historical analysis. Because the “novel” is first and foremost a “new” medium for the exploration of individual experience in a rapidly changing world, the web presents a unique opportunity for us to investigate the strengths and limitations of a new and increasingly commonplace medium. Like the eighteenth-century novel, hypertext not only requires new modes of reading, but it also represents changing patterns of human thought. As Marshall McCluhan famously argued, the medium is the message; we see the world—and our roles in it—differently in different media.
You may complete this option either individually or in teams of two. While we will not devote course-time to learning the basics of website construction, Marymount has several resources available for such a project; you may also use Microsoft Word to create such a text. I will make how-tos and other guides on this subject available as well. If you choose this option individually, your hypertext must be accompanied by a 5 page overview that describes, in miniature, your argument and what function you see such a project performing (If you choose this option in teams of two, your overview must be 10 pages in length). Did you confront and overcome any specific obstacles, especially in your conceptualization of the project? What does the hypertext as medium allow you to do or see differently, as you read and interpret your text? If you elect this option, you must use at least two reputable secondary sources (for each person contributing to the project), either assigned or researched on your own.
You might begin by examining several existing hypertexts and similar web-based projects, like the student projects included in “Eighteenth-Century England,” an online collection of undergraduate and graduate work by students at the University of Michigan. You might also take a look at the ongoing Pierre Marteau hypertext 1719 edition of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. You may also take a look at a few substantial projects created by advanced undergraduates at Washington & Lee University for ideas and inspiration; available projects are on the 18th century novel and Restoration and 18th century drama. Finally, you can examine sample hypertexts constructed by students in English 200 last term, each of which were created using Microsoft Word. As graduate students, however, I expect your work to be significantly more rigorous than several of these existing projects. Ultimately, I will post these projects online, beginning a dedicated site for hypertext readings crafted by graduate students at Marymount University.
Many, if not all, of the primary sources we are reading this term are available online from Project Gutenberg; you should feel free to use this resource as you construct your project.
It should go without saying…
Whichever option you decide to complete, your work must be completely compliant with MLA formatting and citation guidelines, free of grammatical and stylistic errors, and written in lively and engaging prose.
Of inhuman bondage
Oroonoko and Imoinda are bound to the traditions of their people in the first half of the novel, and to the whims of Oroonoko's despotic and senile grandfather. In the second half of the novel, Behn states that Oroonoko/Caesar and Imoinda/Clemene are slaves by name only. An argument can be made that Oroonoko's bondage is of a greater degree before he is shanghaied and transported to Suriname, and that rejecting the taboo in his homeland feeds the impulse to go back on his word not to take arms against his masters. It is not the purpose of this missive to make light or in any way exonerate the institution of slavery, but to point out that a man of high rank and stature can nonetheless be controlled by desire, culture, circumstance and tradition to as great if not greater an extent than one who is labeled a slave. Imoinda receives the royal veil and is bound by traditon and law to report to the king's otan. Though the king is over a hundred years old, already possesses numerous wives, and is apparently impotent, he nonetheless exercises his absolute authority as monarch and summons Imoinda to be his wife. "... [T]he obedience the people pay their king was not at all inferior to what they paid their gods, and what love would not oblige Imoinda to do, duty would compel her to." (Behn, 19) Imoinda and Oroonoko have no recourse but to submit to this whim of self-gratification. The narrator informs the reader that Imoinda would be executed should she refuse the invitation. Oroonoko is bound by the custom that a descendant is forbidden to marry a wife of his anscestor, and for him to pursue Imoinda would be to violate a sacred cultural taboo. Oroonoko declares himself bound by the taboo to his friends, stating that he could not violate the code without setting "an ignoble precedent for [his] successors." (21) Behn tells us that the people of Coramantien possess a native justice unpolluted by concepts of fraud and deceit; the natives rebuke a governor who fails to keep his word that he shall arrive at a certain time. (11) I suggest that among Oroonoko's European attributes, which for the most part Behn lauds as charismatic, there exists an inclination for Oroonoko to go back on his word. Twice he does this, to the great detriment of his fate. Driven by desire, Oroonoko pursues Imoinda and consummates his marraige to her despite acknowledging the cultural stricture. Once he is a slave in Surinam, he tells the narrator that "he would sooner forfeit his eternal liberty, and life itself, than lift his hand against his greatest enemy on that place." (49) Even though Oroonoko/Caesar "suffered only the name of a slave," (50), and his wife is reprived daily of her chores by fawning admirerers, he is overcome by his fear that his agreement with Trefry will not be honored, and that Caeser, Clemene, and their unborn son will remain slaves in perpetuity. While in transit to Surinam, the captive Oroonoko speaks to the importance of honor to the captain, in an effort to bargain for freedom aboard the ship. Oroonoko declares that a man without honor has greater concerns than punishment in the afterlife; he has lost credibility and is subject to the derision of those honest people who know him and his breach. (39) Despite his freedom to hunt and engage in whatever diversions he wishes, Caesar incites the slave community to rebellion, apparently motivated only by the fear that his family will not be granted freedom. Oroonoko's/Caesar's sense of honor is tainted and diluted by the society that has bound him; the betrayals he repeatedly suffers from Europeans instigates his own breach that leads him and his wife to their brutal deaths.