Robinson Crusoe after 300 Years

Description

There 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. Cover Series Page Title Page Copyright Contents A 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