Oroonoko Close Reading (Anti- Slavery Text) Research Paper

Oroonoko Close Reading (Anti- Slavery Text) - inquiry Paper ExampleSo, Oroonoko puts on various identities as a novel, as a travelog, or colonial discourse than an anti-slavery text. The narration presents contradictions in the perspectives of the fictionalized author narrator and the hero, Oroonoko and creates doubts about its characteristics as an anti-slavery text.Set in the 17th century, Oroonoko is often seen as a precursor of the anti-slavery literature which became popular later during the nineteenth centuries. Norton Anthology says that In the first 1660s, when the events described in BehnsOroonoko are supposed to have taken place, England was not yet a major power in the slave trade (The Norton Anthology of English Literature). This has Oroonoko as a reference text when it comes to inside information on slave trade. In its section on the biography of Aphra Behn, the anthology says that the novel had great impact on people who fought against slavery and slave trade.Oroon oko also has been critically acclaimed to be an anti-slavery text by many critics. Laura embrown in her the Romance of Empire Oroonoko and the Trade in Slaves says that, the novelette had been recognized as a originative work in the tradition of antislavery writings from the time of its publication down to our own period(42). Oroonoko captures the transatlantic slave trade and is set in the colonial Africa and West Indies. One of the most outstanding aspects of the novella is that Oroonoko has an African prince as its hero. Though set in the British colonies, it is unlike a mere travelogue or a documentary. On the other hand, it makes a strong statement regarding slavery in its characterisation of the cruelties of slavery. The details about the process of slave trade are described. The author of Oronooko says, Who want slaves make a bargain with a master or a captain of a ship, and contract to pay him so much apiece, a matter of twenty pound a