THE PASSION OF "OROONOKO": PASSIVE OBEDIENCE, THE ROYAL SLAVE, AND APHRA BEHN'S BAROQUE REALISM

• Published in: ELH Vol. 79; no. 2; pp. 447 - 475
• Main Author: HAROL, CORRINNE
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 01.06.2012
• Subjects: Allegory; Behn, Aphra (1640-1689); Christianity; Colonialism; Ethics; Narrators; Novels; Obedience; Political revolutions; Politics; Reading; Religion; Slaves; Tyranny; Writers

The Passion of Oroonoko situatues Aphra Behn's novella Oroonoko (1689) within the context of debates about passive obedience and political obligation during the Revolution of 1688-9. It argues that Oroonoko leverages residual theories and forms of representing human action (baroque allegory, ro...