Oroonoko
Theme (1)
Honor, Royalism--Oroonoko as
prince/Old king/strict sense of honor/link to Stuart kings
Theme (2)
Politics, Economics--economic system--slavery/Oroonoko trades
slaves/becomes one
Themes--Conflict between (1) & (2) Slavery ok if won in battle
Postcolonialism--Said's Orientalism, Surninam natives as children / Natives defined against West / Narrator objects to Oroonoko's bondage but supports Surinam as a colony
Narrative Structure
Romance, History, Realism--blending of these. See Dedication
Tension between surface text and subtext or among three forms below.
Novel's ending--Unresolved Contradictions--realism (death) & romance?
History Slavery -- chattel slavery -- buying and selling / Stuart Kings--narrator's sympathy -- see crit. intro. / Crown vs. Parliament -- royal perogative
Primitivism (The Noble Savage)--Montaigne's essay Of Cannibals--see opening pgs of Oroonoko--prelapsarian world free of corruption (see Postcolonialism)
Behn-Memoir & personal account/personal history-her role in the novel? Sympathy/Fear
Women Writers in the 17th & 18th Centuries
Female authorship and slavery
Relationship between the author and Oroonoko
Women--Imoinda/Onahal
Biography Story of Oroonoko--True History as social life/Romance--Imoinda/Also, Onahal & Jmoan
Travel Narrative Africa/Surinam--see critical intro.