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2.84 AVERAGE
2.84 AVERAGE
this reads like a book I've been forced to read for a module I didn't pick... oh wait
I mean, honestly, it was better than what I was expecting. There's definitely adventure and love and all the good stuff woven into this story, but the racism and the fact that I read it out of a really small-text anthology makes this simply average.
The whole story was basically "Although Oroonoko aka Ceasar is black, he is wonderful and does all kinds of brave things (followed by a list of brave things he did such as killing tigers and stuff), oh and he loved Imoinda very much." There are so many things wrong with this storyline and basically the whole book that I don't even know where to start. It's written in 1688, which explains a lot of these things, I guess, but this doesn't change the fact that on top of it all I thought this book was just incredibly boring.
The whole story was basically "Although Oroonoko aka Ceasar is black, he is wonderful and does all kinds of brave things (followed by a list of brave things he did such as killing tigers and stuff), oh and he loved Imoinda very much." There are so many things wrong with this storyline and basically the whole book that I don't even know where to start. It's written in 1688, which explains a lot of these things, I guess, but this doesn't change the fact that on top of it all I thought this book was just incredibly boring.
i want to resurrect aphra behn so i can slap her across the face
I read this for my History of Women Writer's class. While it was very interesting and informative of the time I didn't really find myself able to connect to the novel or characters. Obviously it is very problematic now a days given the way the subject matter is approached. In my class we are examining it in terms of the early female gaze on both male and female and early abolitionist literature. In both of these categories it is a very important novel.
emotional
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
While I'd been vaguely aware of this work, I doubt I'd ever have set out intentionally to find and read it, and so I'm glad that I came across it while reading the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women, because it has some interest as a historical document.
The very fact of the piece's existence is something of a curiosity, in a way highlighted by its presence in the Norton. Since the advent of the written word, its domination by men has been so nearly absolute that in this anthology, curated from all woman-authored works in English (Old, Middle, Modern), fewer than 200 pages are needed to cover everything before Oroonoko, which was penned in 1688. Indeed, Behn is sometimes considered the first woman to support herself financially by writing. So it's interesting to find, in an artifact of arguably the infancy of female writing, a hero with black skin, criticism of certain practices of slavery, and a bold condemnation of the hypocrisy and self-servingness of Christianity.
There's also the noteworthy fact of this being an early example of the prose fiction form that would, within the next hundred years, become known as the novel.
Having said all that, Oroonoko is a paean to "civilized" Eurocentrism, with the hero taking most of his supposedly admirable qualities from his similarity to, or knowledge acquired from, white men (such as his thin nose and lips and his fluency in English and French); while overflowing with praise for the central character and with mourning for his fate, at the heart of the story is nonetheless a virulent racism, disguised for most of the book as ignorance in the manner of noble savage stereotypes, but fully betrayed near the end when the bloodthirsty torture exacted on Oroonoko is described (by himself!) as unjust only because of his noble, royal birth - in contrast with all other black slaves, "such dogs," "the vilest of all creeping things." Oroonoko decries his failed rebellion and regrets "endeavoring to make those free who were by nature slaves, poor wretched rogues, fit to be used as Christian's tools; dogs, treacherous and cowardly, fit for such masters." Straightforwardly hateful.
I was disappointed that the Norton Anthology's introduction to this author and work, which I re-read after finishing the story, failed to critically examine these passages while declaring "complex" Behn's "treatment of racial difference" and ultimate "outrage against the injustice of slavery" which, the editors claim, "give the book extraordinary resonance."
The very fact of the piece's existence is something of a curiosity, in a way highlighted by its presence in the Norton. Since the advent of the written word, its domination by men has been so nearly absolute that in this anthology, curated from all woman-authored works in English (Old, Middle, Modern), fewer than 200 pages are needed to cover everything before Oroonoko, which was penned in 1688. Indeed, Behn is sometimes considered the first woman to support herself financially by writing. So it's interesting to find, in an artifact of arguably the infancy of female writing, a hero with black skin, criticism of certain practices of slavery, and a bold condemnation of the hypocrisy and self-servingness of Christianity.
There's also the noteworthy fact of this being an early example of the prose fiction form that would, within the next hundred years, become known as the novel.
Having said all that, Oroonoko is a paean to "civilized" Eurocentrism, with the hero taking most of his supposedly admirable qualities from his similarity to, or knowledge acquired from, white men (such as his thin nose and lips and his fluency in English and French); while overflowing with praise for the central character and with mourning for his fate, at the heart of the story is nonetheless a virulent racism, disguised for most of the book as ignorance in the manner of noble savage stereotypes, but fully betrayed near the end when the bloodthirsty torture exacted on Oroonoko is described (by himself!) as unjust only because of his noble, royal birth - in contrast with all other black slaves, "such dogs," "the vilest of all creeping things." Oroonoko decries his failed rebellion and regrets "endeavoring to make those free who were by nature slaves, poor wretched rogues, fit to be used as Christian's tools; dogs, treacherous and cowardly, fit for such masters." Straightforwardly hateful.
I was disappointed that the Norton Anthology's introduction to this author and work, which I re-read after finishing the story, failed to critically examine these passages while declaring "complex" Behn's "treatment of racial difference" and ultimate "outrage against the injustice of slavery" which, the editors claim, "give the book extraordinary resonance."
One of the most racist book I’ve ever read. Thought it was gonna be progressive because it says so online but i doesn’t condemn slavery in any way. The black man is only glorified for is “white” features and is an exception. Bipoc deserves a warning before reading and should not be forced to read especially not for an degree.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A