A Royal Slave as Colonial Criticism in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2,7, University of Freiburg (Anglistik/Amerikanistik), language: English, abstract: Aphra Behn’s narrative Oroonoko or the Royal Slave was published one year before her death in 1688 at a time when the Atlantic Slave Trade and African Slavery were in full blossom as a result of European Colonialism. The story is about the curious case of the gallant prince Oroonoko who got pulled into slavery and was deported to the British colony of Surinam in the 1660’s. Behn’s work combines different genres of texts such as the travel narrative, the romance but most importantly social criticism. Although Oroonoko is regarded as a literary work by many scholars that has advanced and supported the cause for the abolition of slavery in Britain as well as in it’s colonies, it is in fact a non anti-slavery text. The author does not touch the pressing issue of slavery as such because she presents us with a rare and exceptional kind of slave. Nevertheless, the book clearly illustrates through the depiction of its hero the injustice, cruelty and arbitrariness of slavery that has been brought upon the African peoples by European Colonialism. In this paper I will show Behn’s unusual presentation of a royal slave in order to criticize British Colonialism, first, by giving a brief overview on Transatlantic African slavery that is portrayed in early modern literature, second, by analyzing the depiction of slaves in Behn’s narrative with a special focus on Oroonoko the royal slave, and finally by illustrating Behn’s necessity for choosing a tragic hero, who could have never been protected from the depths of slavery by his royal status.