Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (1688)

In A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf notably suggested that:

All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn...,for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. It is she—shady and amorous as she was—who makes it not quite fantastic for me to say to you to–night: Earn five hundred a year by your wits.

Condemned as both a "punk" and a "poetess" (you should look the first word up in the OED if you're not sure how it's being used), she was the first woman author to make a living by the very "female pen" she describes in Oroonoko, the second text we'll be reading this term. Though many of you may have already encountered during your undergraduate career, we will be paying particular attention to the text as an early representative of the modern novel in addition to the complexities of its ideological positions. Information on Behn's biography and cultural/historical context is available via the Literature Resource Center, accessible both to the right of this page and on our Blackboard site.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Behn seems to take up a large part of the beginning of Oroonoko with elaborate physical descriptions of both Oroonoko (Caesar) and Imoinda. What do these descriptions suggest to you? Why do you think the narrator describes Oroonoko and Imoinda this way? How are the other slaves described? What are the differences in these descriptions from those of Oroonoko and Imoinda?
2. Who is the narrator of Oroonoko? Is she a character in the novel? What do you imagine her position in society to be? What do you think her attitude toward slavery is? How do you know? Do there seem to be contradictions in her attitude? What are they? How does she characterize her relationship to Oroonoko—and what do you think it actually is?
3. Throughout this novel, the narrator carefully foregrounds issues of accurate representation. Pay attention to the places where the narrator mentions lying, vow-breaking, promises, the historical truth, and her ability to represent the story accurately—or at all. Where does the narrator reference tale-telling, and under what circumstances? Why is the narrator telling this tale? How might names and naming play into this? Throughout the text, consider who has the ability to name—things, people, and so on.
4. In Oroonoko, “wit” and “learning” are frequently discussed. Which characters are explicitly described as witty or learned? How does the text seem to treat wittiness, learning, knowledge? What are the differences between them? Is either Oroonoko or Imoinda treated as particularly witty? Learned? Knowledgeable? What about the narrator?
5. Critics have historically associated “the novel” with the middle class and middle class consciousness; “the romance” with the feminine and aristocratic; “the epic” with the masculine and aristocratic. What elements of this text strike you as “middle class,” and why? What elements are more “elevated” or “aristocratic”? More gendered? With what class—either economic or generic—does the narrator’s conception of value and worth seem to lie?
6. What is the role of violence in this text? Characterize the moments when violence is particularly apparent—what is unique or unexpected about the nature of this violence?
7. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the national economy was increasingly underwritten by traffic in human flesh; wealth was built on the backs of slaves. How does Behn’s narrator seem to treat the traffic in human flesh? As the text was read and re-read over time, and especially during periods invested in abolitionist discourse, it came to be treated as an “anti-slavery” novel—though currently, that analysis is being complicated. What do you think? Is this an anti-slavery novel? Or is the question that simple?
8. After reading the end of the text, go back to the beginning—what insights do you gain? Reexamine question #1. Do you have any new insights?