http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/aphra-behn Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:27:13 -0400 Sat, 25 Apr 2026 07:27:13 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture By Conner R. Hayes - Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko offers a complex representation of the semiotic and socio-political meaning of seventeenth-century torture and death and the intersectional manner in which physical agony coincides with authoritative colonial politics. The novella’s protagonist, Oroonoko, is hyperbolically described in terms of his Eurocentric physicality and aristocratic traits; this descriptive treatment reinforces his singularity from his slave peers and objectifies him as the subject of their mass spectatorship. His sharp physical, cultural, and ideological divergence from the collective slave... Tue, 30 May 2017 09:28 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1644/aristocratism-and-authoritative-politics-in-behns-oroonoko-the-existential-and-socio-political-semiotics-of-death-and-torture http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/519/persuasion-and-agency-in-aphra-behns-oroonoko By Tristan Gans - Aphra Behn’s 1688 novel Oroonoko leaves many questions unanswered.[1] In one of many seeming contradictions within the text, one wonders how Behn, personally victimized by Charles II and an economic system that sought to disenfranchise her,[2] would glorify a socio-political system that affirmed not just masculine dominance, but the essential and innate authority of a male whose moral and political agenda enforces the oppression of her gender; furthermore, her de facto assertion of authority as both the creator of the work and an influential character implies a certain amount of agency and... Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:45 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/519/persuasion-and-agency-in-aphra-behns-oroonoko http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1695/aphra-behns-the-rover-evaluating-womens-social-and-sexual-options By Ellen T. Goodson - Following the collapse of the Puritan Protectorate in 1660, the halls of court seemed to buzz with a festive attitude: “Out with the old and in with the… older.” Cavalier revelries under Charles II regained the notoriety of their pre-Cromwellian counterparts.  Britain’s king led his noblemen by example with a hedonistic lifestyle of parties, sex, and extravagant spending.  The social and sexual freedom of this “libertinism,” however, did not extend to ladies.  Although women might crave higher degrees of autonomy and sexual expression, their... Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:05 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1695/aphra-behns-the-rover-evaluating-womens-social-and-sexual-options