Behn's White Innocence: Language Politics in the Dutch-Surinamese Translations of Oroonoko (1688).

This article analyzes two twentieth-century Dutch-Surinamese translations of Aphra Behn's 1688 novel *Oroonoko*, focusing on how each reflects distinct language politics and imperial ideologies within Suriname's colonial and postcolonial contexts. The 1919 translation by H. D. Benjamins, a Dutch colonial official, aligns with Dutch colonial language policies aimed at "Dutchifying" Suriname, adopting Behn's ethnographic authority while neglecting the Sranan Creole language and reinforcing the myth of the Netherlands as a benevolent colonial power. In contrast, Albert Helman's 1983 translation, produced amid Suriname's post-independence political unrest, critically engages with Behn's misrepresentations of Surinamese culture and language, annotating Sranan terms and emphasizing abolitionist and anti-colonial themes, yet still mediates the narrative through Behn's white sentimental femininity, which aligns with a form of "white innocence" that frames Dutch colonialism as ethical and progressive. Both translations thus participate in constructing a Dutch cultural archive that naturalizes imperial racial hierarchies by centering white perspectives and affective identifications, illustrating how *Oroonoko*'s ideological ambivalence has been historically mobilized to serve differing political ends.