Dublin Core
Title
Elizabeth Hartley (nee White) as Imoinda in "Oroonoko"
Subject
Southerne, Thomas. Oroonoko, a tragedy
Hartley, Elizabeth, 1750?-1824
Race in the theater
Description
Full length portrait of Mrs Hartley in the Character of Imoinda. Armed with a bow in her left hand, and a quiver of arrows on her back, she stands in profile. Her bodice and sleeves contain significant amounts of animal pelt. The bottom of her skirt and her headdress contain feathers.
Creator
Roberts, J. [artist]
Publisher
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Date
1777
Contributor
Bell, John
Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689. Oroonoko
Rights
EMBTA does not hold the copyright for this item, which is already made freely available online. EMBTA cannot grant reproduction rights for this image. If you are interested in reproducing this image, please contact the copyright holder named in the “Source” field above.
Format
JPG
Language
English
Type
Still Image
Identifier
embta2014-00168
Document Item Type Metadata
Text
Act IV OROONOKO Scene Mrs. HARLEY in the Character of IMOINDA I fear no danger, life, or death, I will enjoy with you.
Secondary Criticism:
Obviously, by radically altering the skin color of the heroine and presenting a white Imoinda on the stage instead of the black woman that Behn created, Southerne encouraged the women in his audience to visually identify with a white-skinned, virtuous heroine --Lyndon Dominique, Imoinda’s shade : marriage and the African woman in eighteenth-century British literature, 1759-1808 (Colombus: Ohio UP, 2012), 46.
"no tragedy written or performed in the eighteenth century features a black hero in love with a black heroine"--Julie Carlson, "Race and Profit in English Theatre," The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre, 1730-1830, ed. Jane Moody and Daniel O'Quinn (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007), 179.
Secondary Criticism:
Obviously, by radically altering the skin color of the heroine and presenting a white Imoinda on the stage instead of the black woman that Behn created, Southerne encouraged the women in his audience to visually identify with a white-skinned, virtuous heroine --Lyndon Dominique, Imoinda’s shade : marriage and the African woman in eighteenth-century British literature, 1759-1808 (Colombus: Ohio UP, 2012), 46.
"no tragedy written or performed in the eighteenth century features a black hero in love with a black heroine"--Julie Carlson, "Race and Profit in English Theatre," The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre, 1730-1830, ed. Jane Moody and Daniel O'Quinn (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007), 179.
Original Format
Engraving