Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko: A True History (1688) is a work of travel fiction that is split between two narrative voices; beginning with a first person narrative supported by Behn's interesting use of personal voice and progressing to the third person observations of Oroonoko as both a prince and as a slave, Behn creates a realistic and somewhat believable piece of fiction. As a result of this duo narrative, the perspectives of the narrative voices dominate the text, and therefore influence the reader to adapt their response to the text in such a way that their own personal attitude to the events being recounted favours the impression given by the narrator. This biased view of the events unfolding impacts the reader, ensuring that they (the
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The novel uses "focalisation" (Pacheco and Johnson, 2012) as a narrative technique to ensure that whilst the novel explores two individual narrator’s perspectives, the attention is kept on the Royal Slave (Oroonoko). Despite experiencing a plurality of perspectives, it is in fact Oroonoko who remains the focal point (the focalised). Written during the English Restoration period, Oroonoko uses a combination of mimesis and diegesis (two narrative techniques explored and contrasted by Plato and Aristotle) to give two narrative accounts of the events that unfolded. Behn describes in a brief juncture of indirect speech how Oroonoko requests his death from the narrator and her companions or else they shall all face the consequences of his prolonged suffering: “He besought us, we would let him die, and was extremely afflicted to think it was possible he might live” (Behn, 1688) through paraphrasing the character’s words with her own, the narrator diegetically expresses Oroonoko’s desires to the reader. A little further into this scene, Behn's narrator mimetically suggests Oroonoko’s last words of dignity and courage: “But if you whip me, said he, be sure you tye me fast” (Behn, 1688). The effect of using mimetic speech (and more specifically, indirect speech) in her novel is that this form of language representation attempts to increase its plausibility as a biographical piece, which as discussed earlier in this essay, the novel is in fact a work of fiction despite its subheading of A True History. The novel also uses poetic justice to reward Oroonoko for his virtue by presenting him with Imoinda upon
The novel uses "focalisation" (Pacheco and Johnson, 2012) as a narrative technique to ensure that whilst the novel explores two individual narrator’s perspectives, the attention is kept on the Royal Slave (Oroonoko). Despite experiencing a plurality of perspectives, it is in fact Oroonoko who remains the focal point (the focalised). Written during the English Restoration period, Oroonoko uses a combination of mimesis and diegesis (two narrative techniques explored and contrasted by Plato and Aristotle) to give two narrative accounts of the events that unfolded. Behn describes in a brief juncture of indirect speech how Oroonoko requests his death from the narrator and her companions or else they shall all face the consequences of his prolonged suffering: “He besought us, we would let him die, and was extremely afflicted to think it was possible he might live” (Behn, 1688) through paraphrasing the character’s words with her own, the narrator diegetically expresses Oroonoko’s desires to the reader. A little further into this scene, Behn's narrator mimetically suggests Oroonoko’s last words of dignity and courage: “But if you whip me, said he, be sure you tye me fast” (Behn, 1688). The effect of using mimetic speech (and more specifically, indirect speech) in her novel is that this form of language representation attempts to increase its plausibility as a biographical piece, which as discussed earlier in this essay, the novel is in fact a work of fiction despite its subheading of A True History. The novel also uses poetic justice to reward Oroonoko for his virtue by presenting him with Imoinda upon