Aphra+Behn

=Aphra Behn=


 * Aphra Behn** (10 July 1640 – 16 April 1689) was a prolific dramatist of the [|Restoration] and was one of the first [|English] professional female [|writers]. Her writing participated in the [|amatory fiction] genre of British literature.



The personal history of Aphra Behn, one of the first English women to earn her livelihood by authorship,[|[][|1][|]] is difficult to unravel and relate. Information regarding her, especially her early life, is scant, but she was almost certainly born in [|Wye], near [|Canterbury], on 10 July 1640 to Bartholomew Johnson, a barber, and Elizabeth Denham. The two were married in 1638 and Aphra, or //Eaffry//, was baptized on 14 December 1640. Elizabeth Denham was employed as a nurse to the wealthy [|Colepeper] family, who lived locally, which means that it is likely that Aphra grew up with and spent time with the family's children. The younger child, [|Thomas Colepeper], later described Aphra as his foster sister. In 1663 she visited an English sugar colony on the [|Suriname River], on the coast east of [|Venezuela] (a region later known as [|Suriname]). During this trip she is supposed to have met an African slave leader, whose story formed the basis for one of her most famous works, //[|Oroonoko]//. The veracity of her journey to Suriname has often been called into question; however, enough evidence has been found to convince most Behn scholars today that the trip did indeed take place.

Aphra Behn, never an actress, may have possibly made her way into the world of Restoration theater through family connections. Her forte was comedy, often revolving around a plot of "forced marriage" -- which was also the title of her first produced play in 1670. Even working within the constraints of the Restoration's male dominated society, Behn managed to create strong, independent female characters who made their own choices. Over the course of her nineteen year career, Behn probably wrote over twenty plays, as well as several novels and volumes of poetry.

In author [|Virginia Woolf]'s reckoning, Behn's total career is more important than any particular work it produced. Woolf wrote, //"All women together, ought to let flowers fall upon the grave of Aphra Behn... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds."//[|[][|5][|]]. After a hiatus in the 19th century, when both the writer and the work were dismissed as indecent, Behn's fame has now undergone extraordinary revival. She dominates cultural-studies discourse as both a topic and a set of texts.. Much early criticism emphasized her unusual status as a female writer in a male-dominated literary world; more recent criticism has offered more thorough discussions of her works.[|[][|6][|]]

Plays

 * //The Forced Marriage// (1670)
 * //The Amorous Prince// (1671)
 * //The Dutch Lover// (1673)
 * //[|Abdelazer]// (1676)
 * //The Town Fop// (1676)
 * //[|The Rover]//, Part 1 (1677) and Part 2 (1681)
 * //Sir Patient Fancy// (1678)
 * //The Feigned Courtesans// (1679)
 * //The Young King// (1679)
 * //The False Count// (1681)
 * //The Roundheads// (1681)
 * //[|The City Heiress]// (1682)
 * //Like Father, Like Son// (1682)
 * //The Lucky Chance// (1686) with composer [|John Blow]
 * //[|The Emperor of the Moon]// (1687)


 * Links**

[|**http://www.lit-arts.net/Behn/theater.htm**] [] []