‘Otherness’ in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko : a postcolonial theory

Abstract EN

The present research paper focuses on the theoretical concept of „Otherness‟, in particular, racial otherness, which concerned with identity and its representation in the perspective of postcolonial theory in Aphra Behn‟s Oroonoko, or, the Royal Slave.

The paper aims at how the protagonist, Oroonoko, in the chosen text loses his identity through racial otherness.

It is claimed in this study that even though the author, who did not have the same nationality, ethnicity, race and social class background with the marginalized groups of characters in the fictional world that she created in her literary text and she wanted to protect them from the harsh treatment of the colonizers, she failed in in presenting them as positive figures because of their being viewed as „Other‟ by colonizers who had more authority and power in terms of financially, physically, and politically in the society that they lived in.

This study concludes that while the author wanted to make Blacks equal to Whites by Europeanizing the Black Prince, she distorted his culture and made him lose his identity.