Audience and Genre in Oroonoko, The Country Wife, and Gullivers TravelsIntroductionGenre and audience are interwoven concepts and texts are the evidence of this relation. Through them, we can perceive how the audience influences a genre, how a genre reflects upon society, how a text is a product of its times and how it shows the marks of the intended audience. From three contemporary texts like Oroonoko, The Country Wife and Gullivers Travels we can see the different aspects of this relation. Through Oroonoko we see how a text includes elements of different genres so as to fulfil the audiences literary taste; through The Country Wife, how a genre reflects upon the manners of society and through Gullivers Travels, how a text can become a parody and a criticism of society. OroonokoOne question that Oroonoko poses is the multiplicity of genres within it. It is a narrative, or it could be also called short prose fiction, but it has many elements of (1) the oriental romance, (2) travel writing, (3) adventure, (4) tragedy, and (5) finally of the novel. The reason of this variety of genres within a single text is that Behn wanted to make her piece mire appealing to the audience including popular 17th century genres within her writing.Oriental romanceBehn includes in her narrative elements of the oriental romance, which was a popular form during the Restoration. This genre is characterized by a mixture of elements of the romance a development of a love relationship where a series of obstacles appears to interfere with the concretion of love with descriptions of exotic lands, places, people, and objects; that is, a love story framed in an exotic place. In Oroonoko, it is present in the love story between Oroonoko and Imoinda in Coramantien, where Aphra Behn describes to the European reader the exotic African landscapes. Travel writingWhen describing Surinam, the narrative takes the colour of travel writing, a genre popularised in the Elizabethan age of navigation and the discovery of the Americas and the West Indies by the reports of Hakluyt, Ralegh, Drake and others (Drabble, 2000: 1026). However, there is a difference: Aphra Behn positions herself halfway between Europe and America when describing the other. This is clearly seen in the analysis Chibka makes of Behns use of pronouns in his article Truth, Falsehood, and Fiction in Oroonoko. He states that Aphra Behn uses a third person plural pronoun when she wants to present herself abode and apart from the actions of her vicious compatriots (Chibka, 1996: 227). Besides, Behn loads the places with a meaning that goes beyond the places by themselves, for example when she compares the Surinameses with Adam and Eve before the Fall, what moves Oroonoko further away from being a travel writing. AdventureOroonoko takes the form of adventure when the author narrates the different Diversions we entertaind him with, or rather he us (Behn: 43). The adventure genre involves a hero(ine) taking risks and overcoming dangers to complete a task or journey, being the basic elements the protagonist and a challenge (Herald, 2006: 208). The main effect of the genre, achieved in Oroonoko, is that the reader can feel the excitement that the protagonist feels. TragedyIt can be also considered a tragedy because of the way that Behn develops her hero and because of the themes she deals with: honour and love, to the woman as a man and to the citizens as a leader. The themes are treated in an elevated way as dilemmas that the hero has to face. The resolution of the narrative seems taken out of a tragedy: Oroonoko kills his pregnant wife and then he was dismembered while he smokes a pipe showing his courage. NovelFinally, Oroonoko is frequently quoted as one of the antecedents of the novel, mainly because Behns search of veracity. From the very beginning even in the title the author presents her text as a true story, a fact that will be reinforced and repeated throughout the whole narrative. Behns contemporary readers were encouraged by her to read Oroonoko as a true story, [with] especially given (sic) details such as her statement that she presented a native Surinam head-dress for use in Drydens and Howards play The Indian Queen (1664) (Salzman, 2002: 311). Her insistence upon presenting herself as a witness to all the events increases the verisimilitude of the narrative, which was almost a requirement for 17th century prose. If she was not a direct witness, she received the information directly from the participants. What she tells is not a myth that she overheard somewhere in a remote country, it is the narration of her staying in Surinam and the people she met there or at least that is the way she wanted us to see the text. This emphasis on the truth she is aiming at also made some people classify this narrative as a short chronicle.The Country WifeIn 1660 with the re-establishment of the monarchy in England and the reopening of theatres, there was a new flourishment of drama, but the principal actors had died or lost continuity, and the theatres were closed, destroyed or converted to purposes other than theatrical (Avery and Scouten, 1997: 535). When Charles II was crowned, he and the exiled English royalists brought with them, from Paris, the great influence of the French culture. However, in an England under the influence of Ben Jonsons comedies of humour, the seventeenth English comedy took a different course from the French ones. While the latter respected the unities of time, place and action and had one plot, the former had more complicated plots, and more than one, as in The Country Wife: Horners impotence trick, Mr. and Mrs. Pinchwife, and Harcourt and Alithea. They also had no unity of action. Another characteristic of Restoration comedies, as pointed by Sherburn and Bond, is that they are in prose, and are realistic rather than romantic or idealistic [;] repartee is much valuated, and frequently plot is neglected for discussion of proper conditions for marital happiness, of cuckoldry, and, very commonly, of the nature of wit (Sherburn and Bond, 1967: 764). There is no deep depiction of the characters but they represent a specialised type or function, as the country squire (Mr. Pinchwife), the rake as the hero (Mr. Horner), the jealous husband (Mr. Pinchwife).Comedies of manners mirror the manners of the Restoration court. In the Whitehall which was ruled over by Charles II, intellectual refinement, epigrammatic wit, and dalliance had been made the prime qualities sought after by the gallants and their mistresses, and it is these qualities which are reflected in the manners comedy (Nicoll, 1962: 158). Therefore, the attitudes of the court would be reflected on the genre, resulting in a type of comedy that openly speaks about sex and cheating. This led some critics to despise this genre. Collier was one of the most famous critics that charged against comedy of manners (The Country Wife included) for their smuttiness of expression; their swearing, profaneness and lewd application of the Scripture; their abuse of clergy, their making their top characters libertines and giving them success in their debauchery (Collier, 1997: 493-4). Once again, if these were present in the comedies, it was because the comedy of manners responded to the current courts libertine habits and values.This genre also depends on the political changes and social conditions of the period. The first two decades after the Restoration give raise to a comedy which was extremely satirical, cruel and savage, and dealt with issues such as marriage, infidelity, and money, fully reflecting the manners of a sexually society with acquisitive power. But after William and Mary were crowned, the political spirit changed and with it the liking of the comedy of manners:an outward veneer of moral sentiment was beginning to curb the excesses of the gay gallants and the upper middle classes, which had stood apart from aristocratic society, now were coming to enter into its previously closed circle, leaving with their influences its codes of behaviour (Nicoll, 1962: 163).The days of the brilliant and careless wit and licentious, vain and worldly comedies of manners were over (Nicoll, 1962: 163).Gullivers TravelsTravels into Several Nations of the World in Four Parts by Lemuel Gulliver, first a Surgeon, and then Captain of Several Ships or Gullivers Travels was written by Jonathan Swift and it was published by Benjamin Motte in 1726. It was an immediate success mainly because of Swifts success in portraying the English society and politics, and also, as an extension, to humanity. Gullivers Travels is said to be a political parallel in the form of travel writing, both kinds of texts which the audience was used to reading. Readers approached [them] with certain attitudes and expectations derived from years of familiarity with current work in this mode (Bywaters, 1987: 717). Swift created a masterpiece that was it still is, indeed read both as a political satire and children literature. It was by means of the satire that Swift draws different characteristics from the audience and uses them to criticise the same readers. Gullivers Travels is divided into four books in which each of them satirises and voices different criticisms to the society. AnonymityWriters were sensitive as regards parallels since they were aware that they may be prosecuted if a reference was too explicit. Therefore, they did not print out a persons whole name (eg: Mr. St.------ (Swift[footnoteRef:1] in Bywaters, 1987: 724) but used nicknames or mentioned the actions but not the actors, instead. Swift was extremely concerned about his preservation of anonymity because he had already been charged with blasphemy for A Tale of a Tub. Moreover, he was an Irishman talking about the English society and government. He designed a plan to preserve his identity and the authorship of The Travels. Swift gave the manuscript to his friend and fellow writer Gay and he threw it from a Hackney-coach to Mottes, the publisher, house. Then, Gay pretending to be Sympson, Gullivers cousin, started to speak by letter with the publisher. Meanwhile, Swift was in Ireland overseeing the publication and future editions of his book by letter through Pope, Gay and other friends. Swift seemed completely detached from Gullivers Travels, and indeed, except for his friends, no one knew that it was him who hid behind Gulliver. [1: Swift, J. (1941-68) Prose Works, edited by Herbert Davis, 14 vols, Oxford: Blackwell]

Satire Book I & Book IIBook I A Voyage to Lilliput and Book II A Voyage to Brobdingnag are complementary books in that each of them are different sides of the same coin. In the first book, Gulliver is giant and superior, whereas in the second, Gulliver is tiny and inferior. It is frequently stated that Lilliput is an analogy to England under the government of Walpole and Queen Anne or George I. There is a particular episode in Chapter 4 where Reldressal tells Gulliver the problem the Lilliputians are going through (i.e. Tramecksan vs. Slamecksan, and Big-Endians vs. Little-Endians); to Gulliver and to us, readers these problems are insignificant, they are tiny in relation to English or any other countrys problems. That is to say that there is a proportional relation between size of people and magnitude of the problem. This same situation is clearly reverted when the roles change. When Gulliver becomes a diminutive person in Brobdingnag, his problems instantly turn into insignificant to the King of the giants. The readers, who have identified themselves with Gulliver and have shared his point of view, now feel that their problems Gullivers problems English problems Humankinds problems are insignificant. The readers are in a way ridiculed and their problems are minimised to just whether break the egg in the big or in the little end.Book IIIIn the third book, A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan, Gulliver visits the island of Laputa. This flying island is crowded with scientists who are not practical in any way. In fact, they think in such an abstract way that they could not engage in a conversation without their flappers:servants with a blown bladder fastened like a flail to the end of a short stick, which they carried in their hands.[...] With these bladders they now and then flapped the mouths and ears of those who stood near them, of which practise I could not conceive the meaning ; it seems the mind of these people are so taken up by intensive speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon the organs of speech and hearing (Swift, 1994: 171-172).Swift criticises scientists, who are so absorbed in their own thoughts that they cannot interact with other human beings. It has also been suggested that Swift is especially criticising Sir Isaac Newton who was said to be characterised by his absence of the mind of the great (Sir Walter Scott in Degategno and Stubblefiel, 2006: 177). Moreover, it is also worth noticing that Gullivers portrait of the first edition of the book has a remarkable resemblance with portraits of Newton (Edwards, 1996: 191).Swift is also aiming at the Royal Society of London, currently presided by Newton (Degategno and Stubblefiel, 2006: 181). Every project is ludicrous and hopeless such as making gunpowder out of ice or turning human faeces into the original food. The criticism towards the Royal Society can also be seen in the experiments related to language which are expected to be contrasted with the endeavours of the Royal Society in enhancing the English Language.Book IVGullivers last voyage was to the island of the Houyhnhnms. This island was inhabited by two main species: Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. The land was clearly ruled by the Houyhnhnms, horses endowed with reason. These creatures that represent an extreme vision of reason are contrasted with Yahoos which do not have reason but behave instinctively following their passions. The most striking feature is that Yahoos are human shaped with characteristics of monkey. Gulliver feels closer to Houyhnhnms intellectually speaking; he learned their language, lived among them and, like them, he despised Yahoos. Nevertheless, as Brown points out, there is identification between the Yahoo and the human, despite Gullivers own resistance and disgust (Brown, 2002: 360). When Gulliver arrives to Houyhnhnms land, he is closer to Houyhnhnms and reason, but the more he stays in the island the more he moves towards Yahoos and passion. Finally, he is expelled from the island and there is total identification with Yahoos.A way of seeing this distinction between reason (embodied in Houyhnhnms/horses) and passion (embodied in Yahoos/humans) is to think that Swift wants to show the difference between being an animal rationale and rationalis capax (capable of reason) (Rawson, 2005: xxxiv). To say that men are capable of having reason is not the same as saying that men are reasonable or behave according to reason. This can be seen in a letter from Swift to Pope I have got Materials Towards a Treatis (sic) proving that falsity of that Definition animal rationale, and to show it should be only rationalis capax. Upon this great foundation of Misanthropy [...] the whole building of my Travels is erected (Swift[footnoteRef:2] in Rawson, 2005: xxxiv). [2: Correspondences II 607.]

It could also be said that Swift is satirizing the men from the Enlightenment who believed that the best weapon to combat ignorance and tyranny was reason, upon which a perfect world would be built. Swift makes fun of that view and demonstrates how a really rational animal is like. In fact, Swift endows horses, beasts of burden which blindly follow what their masters order them to do, with reason.In Book IV, humans are presented in an elevated position from Yahoos because, unlike them, they can reason.He [Gullivers master] observed in [Gulliver] all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason, which however was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race as the Yahoos of their country were to [Gulliver] (Swift, 1994: 301)However, this is not altogether favourable. It also helps Swift to worsen the image of human beings, because even if Gullivers master hated Yahoos, yet he no more blamed them for their odious qualities than he did [...] a sharp stone for cutting his hoof. But when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself. He seemed therefore confident that instead of reason, we were only possessed of some quality fitted to increase our natural vices (Swift, 1994: 273-274).Swift gives mixed signals as regards human reason: on the one hand humans are lowered to the status of the reasonless Yahoos, showing that both of them do not posses reason compared to Houyhnhnms; but on the other hand, humans have reason but that makes them worse.This either-way-you-loose (Rawson, 2005: xxxviii) atmosphere which Gulliver creates is critical to Swifts intentions: vex the world rather than divert it (Degategno and Stubblefield, 2006: p157). Swifts way is to disconcert and destabilise, creating a quarrelsome ambience in which the reader is treated as belonging to the enemy (Rawson, 2005: xxxvii xxxviii). However, not every reader realises that is being taunted, and this can be seen throughout the Travels and in satires in general. As Swift affirms: Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybodys face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it (Swift[footnoteRef:3] in Douglass Leyburn, 1948: 323-324). [3: Swifts preface to The Battle of the Books.]

ConclusionAfter analysing these three contemporary texts we can appreciate in what ways the audience can influence them. First, in Oroonoko we see that the audiences need to read something true made Aphra Behn constantly include references to the veracity of the story. The current audiences literary tastes also influenced the text that is why there are many genres present in Oroonoko: oriental romance, travel writing, adventure, tragedy and novel. In The Country Wife we observe that the text is based on and reflects upon the characteristics of the audience, that is to say, of the court. In Gulliver, we move a step further; not only does Swift reflect on the characteristics of the audience but he also criticises it. He took the elements of society that he did not like and with dexterity he transformed them into a satire of the English society that could also be applied to any society of the world.

BibliographyAdking, D. (2006) Romance. In Genreflecting: a guide to popular reading interests, by Diane Tixier Herald, edited by Wayne A. Wiegand. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.Avery, E. L., and Scouten A. H. (1997) The Theatrical World, 1660-1700. In Restoration and Eighteen-Century Comedy, edited by Scott McMillin, Norton Critical Edition New York: Norton & Co.Behn, Aphra. Oroonoko. Edited by Joanna Lipking, Norton Critical Edition, New York:Norton & Co.Brown, L. (2002) Reading Race and Gender in Gullivers Travels in Rivero, A. (ed) Gullivers Travels, Norton Critical Edition, New York: Norton & Co.Bywaters, D. (1987) Gulliver's Travels and the Mode of Political Parallel During Walpole's Administration, EHL, Vol. 54, No. 3, Autumn, pp 717-740, Available in http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873228 [04 - 05 - 2010, 11:45].Chibka, R. (1996) Truth, Falsehood, and Fiction in Oroonoko. In Oroonoko, Aphra Behn, edited by Joanna Lipking. Norton & Co.Collier, J. (1997) A Short View of the Immorality and Profanesness of the English Stage (1698). In Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy, edited by Scott McMillin. Norton Critical Edition New York: Norton & Co .Degategno, P. J. and Stubblefield, R. J. (2006) Critical Companion to Jonathan Swift: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, New York: Facts On File.Douglass Leyburn, E. (1948) Notes on Satire and Allegory, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 6, No. 4, June, Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The America Society for Aesthetics, pp 323-331, Available in http://www.jstor.org/stable/426959 [04 05 2010, 11:48].Drabble, M. (2000) The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Oxford: OUP.Edwards, A. W. F. (1996) Is the Frontispiece of Gullivers Travels a Likeness of Newton?, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 50, No. 2, July, pp 191-194, Available in http://www.jstor.org/stable/531907 [04 05 2010, 11:41]Gosse, E. (1966) Restoration Plays. London: Everyman's Library.Herald, D. T. (2006) Adventure. In Genreflecting: a guide to popular reading interests, by Diana Tixie Herald. Westport, Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.Hirst, D. L. (1979) Comedy of Manners. Taylor & Francis.Nicoll, A. (1962) British Drama. 5th edition. London: George harrap & Co.O'Brien, J. (2005) Drama: Genre, Gender, Theater. In A Consice Companion to the Restoration and Eighteenth Century, edited by Cynthia Wall. Blackwell.Rawson, C. (2005) Introduction to Swift, J., Gullivers Travels; edited with an introduction by Claude Rawson and notes by Ian Higgins. Oxford: OUP.Salzman, P. (2002) "Prose Fiction" in A companion to Early Women's Modern Writing, edited by Anita Pacheco. Oxford: Blackwell.Sherburn and Bond. (1967) A Literary History of England. Routledge & Keagan Paul LTD.Swift, J. (1994) Gullivers Travels, Penguin Popular Classics, London: Penguin.

6