Ben, Afra

Information about the life of Afra Ben is rather stingy, contradictory and not reliable in everything. Born in the village of Wye near Canterbury ( Kent ); Barber's daughter Bartholomew Johnston. The events of her youth are almost unknown; there is indirect evidence that she received Catholic education and was even going to become a nun . In 1663, Afra visited an English sugar plantation on the Suriname River , where, according to her own statement, she talked for a long time with a black slave of noble origin, whose history subsequently formed the basis of the novel “ Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave ”.

Returning to England, Afra married Johan Ben, a merchant of German or Dutch origin who lived in London . The marriage lasted only a few years. Apparently, he was fictitious, serving to strengthen the position in society and to decently mask her bisexual inclinations (Afra confessed her love to both men and women, and many similar allusions are scattered in her works). By 1666, she gained influence at court, fulfilling the secret assignments of Charles II in Antwerp during the Anglo-Dutch war ; in secret correspondence she used the name Astrea , who later became her literary pseudonym . The secret service did not bring her income: the king constantly delayed fees for espionage services, so Afra Ben had to spend some time in a debt prison.

In 1669, after an unknown person paid her debts, Afra Ben began her career as a professional writer. Using connections with London's writers and playwrights, she quickly gained success as the author of love stories, theater plays, novels, and poems. Many of her plays are imbued, in the spirit of literature of the times of the Restoration, with frank erotica ; some are alterations of earlier works. Prose writings brought her great fame: satirical and love stories, novels “Love correspondence of a nobleman and his sister” ( Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister , 1684 ) and “Orunoko” ( 1688 ), considered the pinnacle of her work. The protagonist of this work, developing the traditions of a gallant romance , is the Negro prince Orunoko, who sets off for the New World in search of his beloved Imoinda, sold for slavery, and becomes a slave for the sake of love for her. Not having endured ill-treatment, he raises a revolt of slaves, during which Iminda dies. Captured by slaveholders, Orunoko undergoes inhuman torture (which he suffers with stoic calm) and dies. The image of Orunoko is considered one of the earliest examples of the "noble savage" in European literature.

Afra Ben passed away on April 16, 1689 and was buried in Westminster Abbey .

One of the first critics of Afra Ben was the greatest poet of his time, Alexander Pope , who considered her work to be lightweight. Until the beginning of the XX century, her work remained in oblivion, until in 1913 the collected works of Afra Ben, prepared by Montague Summers , came out. From this moment, the popularity of her works begins to grow rapidly, especially thanks to the extremely high ranking Virginia Woolf ; According to her, Afra Ben "has achieved the right for women to express their thoughts." Since the 1960s, interest in her work has experienced a real boom; A huge number of works are devoted to her works, they are studied at universities and are recognized as classics of English literature. Particular attention to Afra Ben is demonstrated by critics and writers of feminist views. The most popular subject of research and critical interpretations is the Orunoco novel, which highlights the themes of slavery , race, and colonialism .

• Centrifle, Suzanne
• World of the River

• Ben Afra // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Ben, Efre // Literary Encyclopedia : 11 vol.: Vol. 2 / Otv. ed. Fritsche V.M .; Repl. Secretary Beskin O. M. - [ B. m .: Publishing house Kom. Acad., 1929. - St. 42−43. - 768 stb. : ill.
• Vatchenko S. A. At the origins of the English anti-colonialist novel: A Creative Search for Afra Ben in Novel Prose. - Kiev, 1984.

• Works
• Baroque and classic tendencies in Afra Ben's Orunoco novel
• "Orunoko, or Regal slave" of Afra Ben and the legend of the "good savage"