4/26: QUESTIONS FOR CAROL


-- I'm trying to understand the differences in attitudes (toward empire, colonialization, non-white peoples) between when these plays were written (1660s-80s) and 1710 when they were presented for the "Four Kings". What has changed? Do audiences see these plays differently in 1710? Help!

-- Why did Southerne make Imoinda white (a change which was criticized at the time)?

-- Surely the fact of King Philip's War (1675) changed how English viewed Iroquois, and how they viewed Indians. ["The war proved a critical turning point by destroying the interdependent world constructed jointly by white colonists and Native Americans and replacing it with a new culture in which native peoples were marginalized and the white settlers were dominant." (Wikipedia entry)]

Doesn't this view contradict Roach's idea of negotiation between "equals" (visit as Condolence Council) and an alliance against the French? Or does it?

-- In Southerne's Oroonoko, no one seems upset by the fact of a white slave (Imoinda). Why not?

-- How is the tension between aristocratic (Tory) contempt for mercantilism and greed (especially regarding slave trade) and desire for empire/pride in British identity playing into view of Africans/Indians and identity as White/English? In other words, what values are associated with English/White identity? As represented by whom? Is this tension between the idealistic and pragmatic/commercial values something that has been bequeathed to us today in terms of White identity/privilege? (duh!) Who won? Am I oversimplifying? (again: duh!)

-- What about this idea of the threat posed by colonists changing sense of identity reflected in plays? Image of slave trader and planters, for sure; otherwise?

-- Reading The Indian Emperour, I was really struck by the scene (4.1) in which Cortez is imprisoned and in chains and Almeria comes to murder him but cannot in the face of his absolute equanimity; instead, she falls in love with him. What a strange scene! Cortez does nothing but lie there and say, "I cannot feare so faire an Enemy," and Almeria is stopped in her tracks. She asks, "Whence can thy Courage come?" and he answers only, "From innocence." He is absolutely virtuous.
Along these lines, I'm wondering if there is something in the nature of Dryden's heroes, and in their connection to the libertine, which could be central to the developing sense of English identity during the Restoration (I sound like I know what I'm talking about...) I'm getting this from the introduction to John Dryden: Four Tragedies (1967, Beaurline and Bowers, eds.) in which the editors say that Dryden adapts the earlier English and continental hero "... to Restoration times and [depicts] him as a natural man who prized his freedom and self-respect above all things. That strain of primitivism was woven through contemporary libertine thought, and it was manifest in comedies of the age." They go on to cite contemporary ridicule of Dryden for making gallants into heroes. Then--I'm happy to say, because I read this after being knocked out by the prison scene--they discuss Cortez and the prison scene, and conclude that the virtue he shows in this scene (by remaining true to his first love, Cydaria, and honest with Almeria in the face of both his imminant death and her professed love) is repeated in subsequent scenes until "He wins both power and beauty, demonstrating that independence and truth to an inner code of natural virtue are finally consistent with power and public virtue."
So: Does Dryden's portrayal of this kind of hero (and the continued popularity of this and similar plays) reflect an attempt by the English to justify all the benefits gained through what they also seem to perceive as rapacious colonial mercantilism? Is it their attempt to have their cake and eat it too? How are our attempts to justify (and/or be blind to) White privilege similar to these earlier attempts? Are we doing the same thing, and, if so, are we re-producing, re-performing, the same behavior? Or am I being entirely too simplistic?

4/26 Thoughts


A basic question: Who are we as White Americans, and where did that identity come from?

Assumption: "White American" identity derived from English/British (where do Scots & Irish come in?), as opposed to French, Spanish, or other European immigrants.

Assumption: That identity has been forged in relation to two "darker" races: African and Amerindian, and cannot be separated from them (but does not partake of them, either; that is, it exists in contrast to them and as a result of confrontation with them.


Dryden and artificiality: (from "General Introduction" to John Dryden: Four Tragedies, Beaurline and Bowers, eds.)

Looking at the debate between Hector and Troilus again, we see that it does not proceed logically, nor do Troilus and Hector make a great show of reason; rather the whole impression comes from our awareness that their words project intense feelings by means of artificial devices, mannered contrasts, and patterned development: the movement from self-centered passion to public-centered compassion. The pattern has almost a life of its own; it is a desirable form by which to depict character and to excite the audience's sympathy, yet we are always conscious of the artifice, the bold turns and counter-turns. This sense of disjunction--of the gap between art and nature continually opening and closing but most often being maintained in surprising tension, wherein artifice restrains boldness and boldness itself becomes artificial in order to limit some contrary passion--this is Dryden's most characteristic mode, and it makes him, in modern terms, a distinctly "inorganic" artist. (p. 3)

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Reading The Indian Emperour, I was quite struck by the scene (4.1) in which Cortez is imprisoned and in chains and Almeria comes to murder him but cannot in the face of his absolute equanimity; instead, she falls in love with him. What a strange scene! Cortez does nothing but lie there and say, "I cannot feare so faire an Enemy," and Almeria is stopped in her tracks. She asks, "Whence can thy Courage come?" and he answers only, "From innocence." He is absolutely virtuous.
Along these lines, I'm wondering if there is something in the nature of Dryden's heroes, and in their connection to the libertine, which could be central to the developing sense of English identity during the Restoration (I sound like I know what I'm talking about...) I'm getting this from the introduction to John Dryden: Four Tragedies (1967, Beaurline and Bowers, eds.) in which the editors say that Dryden adapts the earlier English and continental hero "... to Restoration times and [depicts] him as a natural man who prized his freedom and self-respect above all things. That strain of primitivism was woven through contemporary libertine thought, and it was manifest in comedies of the age." They go on to cite contemporary ridicule of Dryden for making gallants into heroes. Then--I'm happy to say, because I read this after being knocked out by the prison scene--they discuss Cortez and the prison scene, and conclude that the virtue he shows in this scene (by remaining true to his first love, Cydaria, and honest with Almeria in the face of both his imminant death and her professed love) is repeated in subsequent scenes until "He wins both power and beauty, demonstrating that independence and truth to an inner code of natural virtue are finally consistent with power and public virtue."
So: Does Dryden's portrayal of this kind of hero (and the continued popularity of this and similar plays) reflect an attempt by the English to justify all the benefits gained through what they also seem to perceive as rapacious colonial mercantilism? Is it their attempt to have their cake and eat it too? How are our attempts to justify (and/or be blind to) White privilege similar to these earlier attempts? Are we doing the same thing, and, if so, are we re-producing, re-performing, the same behavior? And, if so, in what way do we behave the way we do today because of these earlier attempts? Or am I being entirely too simplistic?
I think these are the fundamental questions of my project.


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Continuing to read The Indian Emperour

re-read 4.2: terrific debate on duty, virtue, and "our country's good", as Alibech tries to persuade Guyomar to go behind Montezuma's back to make peace with Cortez in the face of the starvation produced by the seige:

Alibech: When Kings grow stubborn, slothfull, or unwise
Each private man for publique good should rise;
As when the Head distempers does endure,
Each several part must join t'effect the cure.
Guyomar:
Take heed, faire Maide, how Monarchs you accuse:
Such reasons none but impious Rebells use:
Those who to Empire by dark paths aspire,
Still plead a call to what they most desire;

Entire scene is very interesting.


Thoughts after completing Indian Emperour:

Can't imagine what Indian Kings must have thought (even assuming they could understand Dryden's language, which I doubt). Fact that play was still in repertoire (was it command performance from them) is significant. Cortez as emblem of virtue in war and love (as opposed to all other Spanish). Noble savages. Female characters usually assertive only in negative aspects (unlike Southerne's heroine).

Scene in which Montezuma and his priest being racked,and in which he argues theology with Catholic priest very interesting. What would it be like to stage? Priest trying to convert and reason with M. as torturing him. Of course, intent is to affirm English anti-Spanish, anti-Catholic tendencies, and so to valorize English identity as the opposite (represented by Cortez, who rushes in to save M.).

Cortez has women fighting over him! What a man!

4 /17 Thoughts:


Remember the "When did you first become aware that you were White" questions. Possible to use that: reproduce answers (videotape interviews)?

Binary: Impossible to imagine black without white, and vice versa

"Contrast" as a motif/theme/strategy for entire piece.

Black woman plays Imoinda as White woman?
White man plays Oronooko as Black man?
Or take it further...

Create exercises which allow us to explore how we daily perform our White selves: walking, talking, dressing, etc. Would really help to have Black students involved, but I'm wondering if we should trade: whites perform blackness? more interested in Blacks performing Whiteness--but does that get into dangerous territory (isn't that the point); opens up the question for a Black person of trying to "be" White. But we White people are often trying to "be" Black, aren't we? Are we? It isn't the same thing AT ALL.

Performing "Redness"? Image of indians...

The really, really interesting thing to me is the ways in which the image of Africans or Indians really had very little (nothing?) to do with what these people were actually like. They were what White people needed them to be (shades of Sambo, or the deeply wise Indian, etc.). We still try to make people who are "different" (all others?) fit into a familiar category, stereotype, archetype, that we are familiar with. Historically, that meant one thing, but more recently it means trying to make them "human"; i.e., White.

Talking with David about the contradictory images of Romans that seem to be at play in these texts (virtuous/corrupt). I need to talk to Carol about this aspect, and it would be great to talk to her with David (Paul). Also David Mycoff. Discussion group with aim to develop ways of thinking about this stuff: Me, Carol, Michael (?), David Mycoff, David Paul, Don (?), Bev (?). Black people? Students (black & white)? Or keep it small...

Roger said to do a deconstruction project such as this, I really need a team or at least a dramaturg (Carol). But what about someone with some knowledge of post-modern performance? Julie? And what about someone involved in music? I need a music consultant, for sure.

REMEMBER ROGER'S ADVICE: KEEP IT SIMPLE. "DECONSTRUCTION" PROJECTS LIKE THIS CAN GET BIG AND OUT OF HAND (and I have that tendency anyway). Remember!!!!

POSSIBLE TEXTS:

QUOTED IN ORR, EMPIRE ON THE ENGLISH STAGE:

". . . the complexion, which being most obvious to the sight by which the Notion of things doth seem to be most certainly convey'd to the understanding, is apt to make no slight impression upon minds, already prepared to admit anything for Truth which shall make for Interest."
--1680, Morgan Godwyn, Barbadian evangelist in his pamphlet entitled The Negro's and Indians Advocate (quoted in Orr, Empire, p.21-- Orr notes that "Interest" is used in financial sense, critiquing the privileging of appearance as indicator of difference and tying "sight", "impression", "understanding", and "interest" together.

"These two words, Negro and Slave, being by custom grown Homogeneous and Convertible; even as Negro and Christian, Englishman and Heathen, are by the like currupt Custom and Partiality made Opposites; Thereby as it were implying, that the one could not be Christians, nor the other Infidels."
-- Godwyn (same)

"'Tis granted, a Negro here does seldom rise above a Trumpeter, not often perhaps higher at Venice. But then that precedes from the Vice of Mankind, which is the Poets Duty as he informs us, to correct, and to represent things as they should be, not as they are. Not 'tis certain, there is no reason, in the nature of things, why a Negro of equal Birth and Merit, should not be on an equal bottom, with a German, Hollander, French-man, &c. . . . The Poet [Shakespeare] has therefore well chosen a polite People to cast off this customary Barbarity, of confining Nations, without regard to their Virtue, and Merit, to slavery, and contempt for the meer Accident of their Complexion."
-- Gildon, in an open Letter to Dryden, 1694, responding to Rymer's attack on Shakespeare (quoted in Orr, p. 23)

"Experience tells us, that there's nothing more common than Matches of this kind, where the Whites and Blacks cohabit together, as in both the Indies: and even here at home, Ladys that have not wanted white adorers have indulg'd their Amorous Dalliances with their Sable Lovers, without any of Othello's qualifications, which is proof enough, that Nature and Custom, have not put any such unpassable bar betwixt Creatures of the same kind, because of different colours."
-- Gildon (same)

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quoted in Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence:

Colonists:

"It was now plainly affirmed, both by some in open Council and by the same in private converse, that the people in New England were all slaves, and the only difference between them and slaves is their not being bought and sold."
-- Anonymous, On the Rebellion Against Governor Andros (1689)

"Those that went over were chiefly single men, who had not the encumbrance of wives and children in England. Such as had left wives in England sent for them; but the single men hoped that the plenty in which they lived might invite modest women without any fortune. The first planters were so far from expecting money with a woman that 'twas a common thing for them to buy a deserving wife at the price of ₤100.
-- Robert Beverley (1705--his history of Virginia?)

"I am forced to dig a garden, raise beans, peas, etc., with the assistance of a sorry wench my wife brought with her form England. Men are generally of all trades and women the like within their sphere, except some who have slaves."
-- The Reverend John Urmstone (1711)
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FROM BEDFORD OROONOKO (ancilliary material)


Texts to look at for script material:

Steele's story "Inkle and Yarico" from Tatler No. 11, March 13, 1711 (pp 192-195)

Addison's "On a Slave-Love Triangle" from Spectator No. 215, Nov. 6, 1711:
"When one hears of Negroes, who upon the Death of their Masters, or upon changing their Service, hang themselves upon the next Tree, as it frequently happens in our American Plantations, who can forbear admiring their Fidelity, though it expresses it self in so dreadful a manner? What might not that Savage Greatness of Soul, which appears in these poor Wretches on many Occasions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of Excuse can there be for the Contempt with which we treat this Part of our Species; That we should not put them upon the common foot of Humanity, that we should only set an insignificant Fine upon the Man who murders them; nay, that we should as much as in us lies, cut them off from the Prospects of Happiness in another World as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper Means for attaining it?" (pp. 196-7)

Look at Lord Willoughby's advertisment for colonists to Surinam, pp. 346-348. "Certaine Overtures made by ye Lord Willoughby of Parham unto all such as shall incline to plant in Ye Colonye of Saranam on Ye Continent of Guaiana"

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Note from Roach's, Cities of the Dead

This is interesting: Roach, talking about the early 18th Century creation of "nationality in the modern sense, as an insular ethnicity organized by the historic fiction of race into an imagined community", quotes Farquhar's call for an English national theatre in Discourse Upon Comedy (1702). "Farquhar presents the English in exceptionalist terms as 'a People not only separated from the rest of the World by Situation, but different also from other Nations as well in the Complexion and Temperament of the natural Body, as in the Constitution of oure Body Politick'" (Roach, 103)

PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY, “Whiteness Project”


BOOKS:

APHRA BEHN: OROONOKO; or, THE ROYAL SLAVE, (A Bedford Cultural Edition), Catherine Gallagher, ed., 2000 Bedford/St. Martin’s Press (PR 3317 O7 2000, UNCA)

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO JOHN DRYDEN, Steven N. Zwicker, ed., 2004 C.U.P. (PR 3424 .C36 2004, UNCA)

CITIES OF THE DEAD: Circum-Atlantic Performance, Joseph Roach, 1996 Columbia University Press (personal copy)

THE COMPLEXION OF RACE: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture, Roxann Wheeler, 2000, U. of Penn. Press (305.800941 W564C, WWC)

DIDO’S DAUGHTERS: Literacy, Gender, and Empire in Early Modern England and France, Margaret W. Ferguson, 2003, U. of Chicago Press (PN 471.F45 2003, UNCA)

EMPIRE ON THE ENGLISH STAGE 1160-1714, Bridget Orr, 2001 Cambridge U.P. (822.409358 O75e, WWC)

THE INTELLECTUAL DESIGN OF JOHN DRYDEN’S HEROIC PLAYS, Anne T. Barbeau, 1970 Yale U. Press (PR 3424 B3, UNCA)

JOHN DRYDEN: FOUR TRAGEDIES, Beaurline and Bowers, eds., 1967 U. of Chicago Press (PR 3412 B4, UNCA)

MACBETH, A TRAGEDY, William Davenant adaption, 1674 (facsimile pub. by Cornmarket Press, Ltd.) (Duke U. Lib--ILL)



QUEEN ANNE’S AMERICAN KINGS, Richmond Pugh Bond, 1952 Oxford U. P. (Davidson Coll. Lib.--ILL)

THOMAS SOUTHERNE: OROONOKO, Novak & Rodes, eds., 1976 U. of Nebraska (822.5 S727o, WWC)

TROPING OROONOKO FROM BEHN TO BANDELE, Susan B. Iwanisziw, ed., 2004 Ashgate Publishing (Jackson Lib., UNCG--ILL)

WHITE, Richard Dyer, 1997, Routledge (305.8034 D 996w, WWC)

WHITE PRIVILEGE, Paula Rothenberg, 2002 Worth Publishers (305.8034 073 W587, WWC)

THE WORKS OF APHRA BEHN, VOL. 4, Montague Summers, ed., 1915 Benjamin Blom, Inc. (PR 3317 A1 v.4, UNCA)

EBSCOhost
Bearing Feathers of the Eagle: Tomochichi's Trip to England

JSTOR: Shakespeare Quarterly: Vol. 30, No. 3, p. 404
Changes in Dramatic Perspective: Davenant's Macbeth

Literature Resource Center -- Title Search Results
Race, Women, and the Sentimental in Thomas Southerne's Oroonoko. MACDONALD, JOYCE GREEN.

Joyce Green MacDonald -
The Disappearing African Woman:
Imoinda
in Oroonoko After Behn -
ELH 66:1

Article 3 Anti-colonist discourse, tragicomedy, and the "American" Behn. (John Dryden, english playwrights of late 17th century) Adam R. Beach.