Troping Oroonoko from Behn to BandeleSusan B. Iwanisziw This volume of essays invites the reader to assess literary texts from within the frame of their own cultural history, which includes issues of authorship and literary or stage convention as well as the social and political institutions that shaped and marketed that literature. The collection initiates just such an in-depth and focused analysis of the complex literary and social history of the royal slave Oroonoko. All seven essays address elements in the evolution of Oroonoko, from Behn's 1688 novella to Southerne's 1696 dramatic adaptation, and thence to the adaptations by Hawkesworth (1759), Gentleman (1760), Anonymous (1760), Ferriar (1788), Bellamy (1789) and Bandele (1999) who serially expropriated the play as a platform to debate responsibility in matters of slavery and colonialism. This study provides rigorous, focused research on a single, complex and controversial topic but also complicates some of our received notions about 'Oroonoko', slavery and abolition. |
Contents
Aphra Behns | 16 |
Domestic Ideology and AntiSlavery on | 35 |
The Widow Figure in Oroonoko | 59 |
Copyright | |
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18th-century Aboan abolitionist African Angola anti-slavery Aphra Behn Aphra Behn's Oroonoko argues audience authorship Bandele Bandele's beauty Behn's narrative Behn's novella biography Blanford British century characters Charles Gildon Charlotte Charlotte's Christian colonial comic plot Coramantien critics cultural David Garrick discourse Early Modern economy edition English enslaved essay European female Ferguson Ferriar fiction gender gift economy Goreau Hawkesworth hero husband ideology Indian Ira Aldridge Iwanisziw John John Hawkesworth king Ladies Magazine Laura literary Literature London marriage miscegenation moral narrator narrator's novel Onahal Onahal's Oroonoko and Imoinda Othello ownership performance plagiarism planters playwright political prose published race readers rebellion Restoration role romance Rosenthal Royal Shakespeare Company Royal Slave scene sentimental sexual Shakespeare slave trade slavery social Southerne's Oroonoko Southerne's play stage Stanmore status story Surinam Theatre Thomas Southerne Todd tragedy tragic Trefry tropes University Press Welldon white woman Widow Lackitt women World writing York