Bodies

• Robinson Crusoe 1719

  He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made

  all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance

  His hair was long and black, not curled like wool;

  The colour of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny… very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.

  his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips
• RC cont.

  He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure.

  This savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I.

  plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian as I have known few equal to him in my life.
• Oroonoko

  They cut Caesar in quarters, and sent them to several of the chief plantations: one quarter was sent to Colonel Martin, who refused it, and swore he had rather see the quarters of Banister, and the Governor himself, that those of Caesar, on his plantations; and that he could govern his negroes without terrifying and grieving them with frightful spectacles of a mangled king.
• Laura Doyle, 2008 Oroonoko as a novel
• Eve Tavor 1987, ‘Robinson . . . might even be described as a sortof counter-Oroonoko.’
• Alex Mackintosh, 2011, colonial exploitation largely leaves the exploited body alive
• Jeremy Chow, 2024

  Oroonoko's enslavement becomes a means by which his body and intentions are harnessed for the success of the colony that has enslaved him