Abstract

In The Widdow Ranter (1690) and Oroonoko (1688), Aphra Behn grafts Amerindian representational systems onto a Royalist world-view, suggesting that they can reinvigorate a culture tainted by the Interregnum and the political turmoil that plagues the Stuarts’ reign. Interconnecting disparate cultural systems and even narrative forms, she condenses a constellation of worldviews on both sides of the Atlantic and warns that English settlements risk their own way of life when they practice cultural hegemony.

pdf

Share