Oroonoko Close Reading (Anti- Slavery Text) Research Paper

Oroonoko Close Reading (Anti- Slavery Text) - Research Paper Example So, Oroonoko puts on various identities as a novel, as a travelogue, 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 seventeenth 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 â€Å"In the early 1660s, when the events described in Behns  Oroonoko 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 details 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. Oroonoko also has been critically acclaimed to be an anti-slavery text by many critics. Laura Brown in her â€Å"the Romance of Empire: Oroonoko and the Trade in Slaves† says that, "the novella had been recognized as a seminal 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 portrayal of the cruelties of slavery. The details about the process of slave trade are described. The author of Oronooko says, â€Å"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