How does Aphra Behn's Oroonoko portray post-colonialism?
Aphra Behn's short novel Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave, published in 1688, tells the fictional story of Oroonoko, an African prince from Coramantien sold to British colonists after being duped into slavery. Upon his enslavement, Oroonoko is taken to a British colony in the West Indies called Surinam. Oroonoko is reunited with his love Imoinda in Surinam. The two conceive a child, but a failed slave revolt precipitates their tragic demise, and the novel culminates in the deaths of both Imoinda and Oroonoko.
Oroonoko can be read through a post-colonial lens as a representation of the disastrous effects of British colonization and slavery upon African nations and peoples. Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a heroic tragedy built around the contradiction inherent in its subtitle: "royal slave." Behn describes Oroonoko as a dignified, noble, and courageous leader, establishing Oroonoko as a sympathetic hero early in the text....
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His enslavement is devastating for both himself and his beloved Imoinda, resulting in their deaths, and it serves as the great tragedy of the novel. His community of Coramantien is represented as a great paradise ripped apart by British colonizers, with Coramantiens "know[ing] no fraud...no vice or cunning, but when they are taught by the white men" (2315). Oroonoko upholds a code of virtue that the deceitful European colonizers do not, demonstrating that the ideals of civilization are not exemplified by slavery or Western imperialistic values.
"Oroonoko: or, a Royal Slave." The Norton Anthology of English Literature: by Stephen Greenblatt and M. H. Abrams, C, W.W. Norton, 2012, pp. 2307-2358.
How does Aphra Behn's Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave display a Eurocentric view and influence her depiction of Oroonoko?
There are plenty of parts in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko that display a Eurocentric mindset or a strain of Western supremacy. You might want to review the way in which the narrator introduces Oroonoko to the reader. The narrator draws attention to Oroonoko’s admiration of the Romans and to his European-like education. In a postcolonial context, you might argue that Oroonoko’s ties to Europe make him a character of interest. Without these Western associations, Oroonoko might remain in the “other” category. He might be deemed unintelligible, uninteresting, or flat-out unimportant.
Additionally, you might have noted that the narrator calls Oroonoko’s character “great and just.” Yet it doesn’t feel like Oroonoko is great and just on his own. It’s more like Oroonoko’s reflection of Western ideals makes him great and just.
It’s not just who Oroonoko admires or what his education suggests; it’s the way he looks. Think about the narrator’s description of Oroonoko’s nose. They describe it as "rising and Roman, instead of African and flat.” They go on to say that his lips are “far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes.”
Again, in a postcolonial context, you could reasonably argue that the narrator’s embrace of Oroonoko is racist. It seems dependent upon the bigoted belief that Western culture is the highest standard that all other people should adopt and replicate.
Although, if you examine the part with the English captain, your postcolonial analysis might become a tad more multifaceted. With the duplicitous captain, perhaps the narrator—or Behn—is trying to point out that Europeans aren’t so noble or virtuous.