"'tis by Comparison we can Judge and Chuse [sic!]": Incomparable Oroonoko

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Abstract

This interpretation of Aphra Behn's novella follows a hermeneutic-phenomenological approach by analysing the operations of comparability and incomparability within the emplotment based on Paul Ricoeur’s theory of triple mimesis (Time and Narrative Vol. 1). This concept presupposes that readerly embodiment plays a vital role in the signification process that results from the encounter of readers and texts. Focusing on the notion of emplotment, the chapter showcases how narrative does not only synthesise heterogeneity (concordance) but also generates pathos and emotionality through sudden reversals in the hero's fate (discordance). That discordance outweighs concordance in the case of Oroonoko underpins the present argument about the dynamics of comparability and incomparability. The chapter contends that three reversals in the narrative suspend comparability momentarily, emphasise the hero’s action and suffering irrespective of narratorial commentary, and, in doing so, recalibrate otherwise Eurocentric analogies inherent in the novella.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComparative Practices
Subtitle of host publicationLiterature, Language, and Culture in Britain’s Long Eighteenth Century
EditorsBöhm-Schnitker Nadine, Hartner Marcus
Place of PublicationBielefeld
PublisherTranscript-Verlag
Chapter5
Pages125-148
Number of pages24
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-8394-5799-3
ISBN (Print)78-3-8376-5799-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022 Mar 26
Externally publishedYes

Publication series

NameEnglish and American Literary Studies
PublisherTranscript Ver,ag

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • General Literature Studies

Free keywords

  • Early novel in English
  • Comparability
  • Slavery
  • Surinam
  • Caribbean history
  • Narrative theory
  • Aphra Behn
  • Affect and emotion
  • Paul Ricœur
  • Critique and postcritique
  • seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

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