Ambiguous "Europeanness" In Oroonoko

Aphra Behn(1640-1689)was one of the most famous female writers in English literature,whose novel Oroonoko was regarded as the earliest novel showing sympathy to Negroes.In the novel,from the first person's narrative perspective,Behn depicted her experiences in Suriname.Many scholars at home and abroad have done researches on this novel from various aspects,but little of them pay attention to the relationship between Behn's hybrid identity and her ambiguous representation of"Europeanness"."Europeanness" is a perspective that sees the whole world from Europeans who claim that Europe is superior to other places.In the novel,Behn expresses her sense of pride as a European through the contrast between Western civilization and Eastern civilization.Nonetheless,as a white female who at the same time suffers gender discrimination and oppression,Behn does not show her absolute admiration for European civilization as her coetaneous English male writers like Daniel Defoe do,but holds a more ambivalent attitude to ethnicity.This thesis attempts to analyze Behn's ambiguous representation of "Europeanness" in the light of Edward Said's Orientalism theory.The thesis interprets the novel from the three aspects of Christianity,colonial practices and the idea of human rights.The first chapter elaborates Behn's ambivalent opinions on Christianity.Throughout the progress of Western history,Christianity played a great role in the establishment and development of European civilization.With the contrast of impacts on people's ideology and behaviors among Christian God,African king as well as Indian "prophet",Behn showed her admiration for the superiority of Christian God and Christianity.However,through the big contrast between the behaviors of Christians represented by the English captain and Byam and the honest Oroonoko,she revealed the hypocrisy of the European Christians.The second chapter discusses Behn's ambiguous views on colonial practices.Under the influence of the new sea-route,the dominant position of the West was further established by colonialism in late 17th century.On the one hand,compared with Suriname colony 's backward economy and primitive customs,the superiority of Western civilization aroused Behn's compliments and defense to colonialism.On the other hand,by showing the white colonists' tortures to Oroonoko and other slaves,and the comparison of Suriname before and after the colonization,Behn realized and criticized the barbarous and aggressive nature of colonial behaviors.The third chapter analyzes Behn's dual attitudes to the idea of human rights.With European Enlightenment coming into being in late 17th century,human rights were valued in Europe.Compared with people of Coramantien and Indians who had no idea of and were even deprived of human rights under the bondage of feudal regime,Europeans seemed to enjoy more natural rights.So Behn demonstrated her praise for the advancement of Western "Natural Rights".Whereas,realizing that the "inalienable rights" of blacks and white women were infringed by white male colonists,Behn revealed that women were still the Other in the eyes of white males and Western civilization was actually the privilege of the white males.Compared with her contemporaneous male writers showing high but blind appreciation to Western civilization with Eastern civilization as a mirror,Behn sees both cultures in a more dialectical way.To certain degrees,her more tolerant ethnic viewpoints not only contribute to the deconstruction of Western hegemony,but also are useful to treat the East more objectively.