Nothing to Lose But Your Chains…
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko
Frederick Douglass. “Narrative.”
William Blake. Poems, especially “The Little Black Boy.”
(You may choose to write about only two of these.)
Secondary Source: (You must refer to at least one, if not both.)
Bizzee, Allen, et al. “Post-Colonial Criticism.”
“The Slave Trade.” British Library. (link on BlackBoard)
Some guide questions to consider:
Behn focuses on the rights of Africans, but does so by pointing out that her hero,•
Oroonoko, was educated in the manner of the European elites, and she thus tends to
depreciate African culture itself. She mentions that Oroonoko was “more civilized,
according to the European Mode… and took more delight in the White Nations” (219).
Douglass writes about how harshly and unjustly he was treated as a slave, and how•
corrupt the white European culture was that allowed this type of slavery to proliferate.
What is going on with these competing ways of understanding Europe (and the US) and
its culture?
Look at the background material in “The Slave Trade.” What aspects of these authors’•
particular historical situations shape how they tell their stories? How was Behn’s
historical moment and place different from Douglass’s? From Blake’s?
Note: You may add some other author we have read to these comparisons if you would like to,
but please clear it with me first.
Things to note:
1. The Purpose: You are arguing, defending a thesis against other possible ways of reading
these texts. It may be good to imagine what your “opponent,” sometimes called a “Naysayer,”
would say against you.
2. The Genre: This is another way of thinking about the purpose. You are writing in the
genre of the research paper, although it is a specific kind of research paper. The only
research you are doing is reading the texts we are given, reading some brief
commentaries located in the Anthologies, and using the discussion we have had among
the other students in the class.
3. You should quote from the authors at times. This serves as evidence for your argument.
However, don’t overdo it. There should be a balance between how much text you are
quoting and how much are your own statements. For example, you will want to have
sentences like the following:
Dostoyevsky’s character, Pavel, argues, “This cannot be the case if we are free
human beings” (340).
The editor describes Dostoyevsky’s style, saying, “Dostoyevsky was in some
ways a realist, and in some ways an existentialist” (331).
Dostoyevsky writes, “And then Pavel went into the restaurant, but he realized he
was a whole hour earlier than the others” (357).
4. You may want to look at the link to a sample research paper (which I include on
Blackboard). It is useful to look at this for its formatting, as well as for the way it
constructs an argument (a thesis statement or main point), and develops it through