Description
Book SynopsisThere is no shortage of explanations for the longevity of Defoe’s
Robinson Crusoe, which has been interpreted as both religious allegory and frontier myth, with Crusoe seen as an example of the self-sufficient adventurer and the archetypal colonizer and capitalist. Defoe’s original has been reimagined multiple times in legions of Robinsonade or castaway stories, but the Crusoe myth is far from spent. This wideranging collection brings together eleven scholars who suggest new and unfamiliar ways of thinking about this most familiar of works, and who ask us to consider the enduring appeal of “Crusoe,” more recognizable today than ever before.
Trade Review"The editors have gathered a collection of excellent essays by eminent scholars on the continuing relevance and power after three hundred years of Defoe’s
Robinson Crusoe. Informative and provocative, these essays provide an essential testimonial to the cultural and philosophical implications of Defoe’s classic novel through those centuries into our own." -- John Richetti * editor of The Cambridge Companion to Robinson Crusoe *
"This rich, wide-ranging volume brings into view the kinds of concerns and contexts that have informed the reception of
Robinson Crusoe itself as well as countless remediations: gender, individualism, imperialism; pantomime, cinema, animal stories for children; more variously, Newton, tobacco, the sequel, and Crusoeian iconicity. This collection is valuable both for its deepening contribution to Defoe studies and its broadening relevance to a larger conversation about the genres of the Robinsonade." -- Rivka Swenson * author of Essential Scots and the Idea of Unionism in Anglo-Scottish Literature, 1603-1832 *
"[An]outstanding collection of essays that demonstrates the enduring significance of literature’s most famous castaway." * Restoration Journal *
"A highly entertaining and enlightening collection of contemporary essays." * The Eighteenth-Century Intelligencer *
Table of ContentsA Note on the Text
Introduction
Andreas K. E. Mueller and Glynis Ridley
PART ONE: Generic Revisions
1
The Martian: Crusoe at the Final Frontier
Glynis Ridley
2 Robinson’s Transgender Voyage: or, Burlesquing Crusoe
Geoffrey Sill
3 Animal Crusoes: Anthropomorphism and Identification in Children’s Robinsonades
Amy Hicks and Scott Pyrz
PART TWO: Mind and Matter
4 Defoe and Newton: Modern Matter
Laura Brown
5 Crusoe’s Ecstasies: Passivity, Resignation, and Tobacco Rites
Daniel Yu
6 Taken by Storm:
Robinson Crusoe and Aqueous Violence
Jeremy Chow
7 Life Gets Tedious: Crusoe and the Threat of Boredom
Pat Rogers
PART THREE: Character and Form
8 Crusoe’s Rambling
Benjamin F. Pauley
9 Crusoe’s Encounters with the World and the Problem of Justice in
The Farther Adventures Maximillian E. Novak
10 “To Us the Mere Name Is Enough”: Robinson Crusoe, Myth, and Iconicity
Andreas K. E. Mueller
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index
