Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text Historical Backgrounds Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
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Book Description
When Prince Oroonoko's passion for the virtuous Imoinda arouses the jealousy of his grandfather, the lovers are cast into slavery and transported from Africa to the colony of Surinam. Oroonoko's noble bearing soon wins the respect of his English captors, but his struggle for freedom brings about his destruction. Inspired by Aphra Behn's visit to Surinam, Oroonoko reflects the author's romantic views of native peoples as being in "the first state of innocence, before man knew how to sin." The novel also reveals Behn's ambiguous attitude toward slavery: while she favored it as a means to strengthen England's power, her powerful and moving work conveys its injustice and brutality.
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"Aphra Behn's Oroonoko, the story of an African prince's enslavement by British colonists and his journey from West Africa to the Caribbean, is the first literary work in English to portray the global interactions of that interlocking structure that came to be known as "the triangular trade." This edition features a generous selection of thematically organized historical materials that illuminate the three corners of the Atlantic triangle: West Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe. Excerpts from contemporary literary works by Ben Jonson, John Dryden, Richard Steele, and Daniel Defoe enrich our understanding of the literary contexts for Behn's portrayal of "blackness" in Oroonoko, and selections from later dramatizations of Oroonoko demonstrate the evolution of British attitudes toward racial difference in the century following the publication of Behn's work."--BOOK JACKET.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text Historical Backgrounds Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)
Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text Historical Backgrounds Criticism (Norton Critical Editions),Aphra Behn,Joanna Lipking,W. W. Norton & Company,0393970140,1640-1689,Behn, Aphra,,Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689,Fiction,General,History,Literary,Literature - Classics / Criticism,Literature: Classics,Oroonoko,Slave trade,Slave trade in literature,Slaves,Sources,16th to 18th century fiction,19th century fiction,Behn, Aphra
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