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Need an argumentative essay on Writing the Modern World, 1600-1800 OROONOKO Aphra Behn, HAMLET Shakespeare, THE MAN OF MODE George Etherege. Needs to be 7 pages. Please no plagiarism.Download file to

Need an argumentative essay on Writing the Modern World, 1600-1800 OROONOKO Aphra Behn, HAMLET Shakespeare, THE MAN OF MODE George Etherege. Needs to be 7 pages. Please no plagiarism.

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Aphra Behn’s profession of being a poet, translator, professional playwright and novelist would lasted for nearly twenty years. Between 1670 and 1689, Aphra Behn would be recognized as a literary influence in London, regularly earning from her writings. Though she published her works many years after the death of the great queen Elizabeth, Aphra Behn, as well as other playwrights were still controlled by the regulations that governed theatre when Queen Elizabeth was still alive. Aphra Behn grew to be less respected figure in the literary-world after her death in 1689. Her carefree reputation, fierce independence as an individual, and lasting belief in the Old Rule resulted in her dislodgment from a progressively more patriarchal and straitlaced world. Additionally, the indistinctness of her most popular book ‘Oroonoko’ could easily be viewed as an assertion of women's right to express their beliefs and have them respected. Her book also seemed to air publicly the shortcomings of British society, and colonial violence. People in that era were not ready to believe that Black Africans had any characteristics that could be defined as being human-yet Aphra Behn showed them as chivalrous people. Her political concepts and convictions in the tale went against the accepted norms at the time, and pitted her against the English society. Approving of an African slave and distorting the phony and allegedly chivalrous and selfless character of English Christians and the true rulers of the British society was viewed as a literary crime that resulted in the text being disregarded. The fact that Aphra Behn was a female writer was an additional reason for her works being viewed as insubstantial (Salvaggio 1993). Even though it was not openly acknowledged, Aphra Behn could be viewed as the original British abolitionist in the records of English literature. Even critical studies that were written later would disregard her literary production. Though it was the original written novel in English records, ‘Oroonoko’ was to be left out of the compilation of English literature for an assortment of excuses from publishers as well as editors because she clearly went against the prevailing cultural beliefs and accepted British practices, even though they were wrong. Seeking to address the evils of slavery in a society that benefitted immensely from this institution is one reason that contributed to Aphra Behn’s ostracism. Some of those she disagreed with included eighteenth century writers such as Henry Fielding, Alexander Pope, and Samuel Richardson. These respected writers recorded their disparagement of Aphra Behn, as well as her writings (Todd 1992). On the other hand, one American citizen Thomas Southerne, was influenced enough by Aphra Behn’s works to use them in a tragedy known as ‘Oroonoko’. This was to be Southerne’s adaptation which maintained the theme of Aphra Behn’s original work with the exception that it made Imoinda, the main character, white and not black. The expression ‘Royal Slave’ being excluded from the heading provided the evidence that ‘Oroonoko’ was no longer considered as a literary work centred on anti-slavery. Oroonoko became an individual, and not merely the human symbol for the institution of slavery. In Aphra Behn’s case, she was more interested in the quality of her literary productions than in the reception by the public (Todd 1999). If she were more interested in popularity, she would not have tackled such controversial subjects in her works. The exposure of many cowardly qualities that existed among the creators of the British colonial expansion program resulted in slanderous attacks on both Aphra Behn and her book.

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