Realism in Robinson Crusoe

The Crusoe Trilogy and the Critics During the last two decades, feminist, Marxist, and New Historicist critics have transformed our understanding of the eighteenth-century novel, but none of them has questioned the iconic status of Robinson Crusoe (1719). Even those critics skeptical of the hero's justifications for colonizing ''his'' island accept the commonplace that Defoe's first novel transmutes the raw material of Puritanical injunction and moral self-scrutiny into the psychological realism that helps define the novel form. In turn, Crusoe's individualistic psychology, most critics agree, marks the transition from a residual aristocratic to an emergent bourgeois, capitalist, and (since the 1980s) broadly Foucauldian ideology of selfhood. The titles of many of these critics' works-centering on ''rises'' and ''origins''-reveal a tendency to write the history of modern identity, the rise of the novel, and the rise of financial capitalism in mutually constitutive and mutually reinforcing terms. 1 Paradoxically, Robinson Crusoe retains its crucial role in revisionist histories of the novel precisely because Defoe can be credited with (or blamed for) developing a colonialist model of subjectivity: conquering the wilderness and exploiting the labor of native peoples allow the colonizer the luxury of becoming a bourgeois subject. 2 Seen in this light, Crusoe's economic moralizing and religious proselytizing may not quite open a window to the soul, but they do offer a compelling novelistic strategy for representing the psychological complexities of Defoe's reluctant pilgrim. This consensus view of Robinson Crusoe, however, holds up only if critics ignore or explain away the two sequels that Defoe published shortly after his successful first novel. In this essay, I call into question some of the assumptions and values that

The Imaginative Conservative, 2020

The essay is a discussion of Defoe’s novel as an oscillation between a search for a Divine providential meaning in the plights of existence and a more secular interpretation of phenomena. The essay shows how Crusoe as narrator tries to reflect back on his journey as a sort of spiritual self-discovery; however, his own actions and deepest passions (in the form of his naturalistic interpretation of events on the island as well as his excessive attachment to wealth) undermine this spiritual orientation. This oscillation between the explanatory frameworks offered by Christianity and secular modernity, I assert, make the novel still relevant and powerful for us today.

Robinson Crusoe is a youth of about eighteen years old who resides in Hull, England. Although his father wishes him to become a lawyer, Crusoe dreams of going on sea voyages. He disregards the fact that his two older brothers are gone because of their need for adventure. His father cautions that a middle-class existence is the most stable. Robinson ignores him. When his parents refuse to let him take at least one journey, he runs away with a friend and secures free passage to London. Misfortune begins immediately, in the form of rough weather. The ship is forced to land at Yarmouth. When Crusoe's friend learns the circumstances under which he left his family, he becomes angry and tells him that he should have never come to the sea. They part, and Crusoe makes his way to London via land. He thinks briefly about going home, but cannot stand to be humiliated. He manages to find another voyage headed to Guiana.

Presentation on Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in relation to the rise of the early modern novel and in relation to the first wave of modernity.

Exam paper, Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, Copenhagen University, 2019

In the following essay, I deal with the representation of the middle classes and their values in Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. The central problem is the manner in which Crusoe’s behaviour and situation clash with his father’s portrayal of the opportunities and proper conduct of a middle-class individual. I claim that this conflict represents a crisis of cultural values opened up by the altered role that the middle-class merchant comes to play in the expansion of European capitalism to overseas territories. Furthermore, I seek to show that the conflict displays a structural continuity of capitalist dynamics as well as a radical rearrangement of individual ego-consciousness—and that both the continuity and the disruptive change are legible in Crusoe’s conduct and reflections, not least his providence-oriented spirituality.

Novel, 2022

This study deals with realism in Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Realism in the study explained the straightforward treatment in life. Realism sheds light on the immediate, the specific actions and their verifiable consequences. Realism seeks a direct connection between representation and the subject. The study is aimed to interpret the actualities of any aspect of life, not restricted to subjective prejudice, idealism, or romantic color. First, an introduction is presented about Realism, which is comprehensively linked to the history of realism and its revolution. Then, the reasons that affected development of English novel will be explained in details. Moreover, we give an extensive emphasis on realism in English literature and describe the novel in 18th century. Then, characteristics of English novel is explained in details and definitions of realism according to a number of authors expressed then we talk about Daniel Defoe as the father of early English novel. Finally, Robinson Crusoe is analyzed and the most important themes of the novel such as colonialism and realism are shed light on to show the degree of similitude in the novel that drew the attention of its readers since the 18 th century.

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, 1962

AFTER ROBINSON CRUSOE has succeeded in conquering his environment and in contenting himself with his solitude, he declares himself "King" of his island, ruling, at first, over his parrot, goats, dog, and cat. He tells the reader, "I was Lord of the whole Manor; or if I pleas'd, I might call my self King, or Emperor over the whole Country which I had Possession of. There were no Rivals."l1 That Defoe was half-serious in suggesting Crusoe's right to call himself King of the island, there can be no doubt. Coleridge wondered whether Crusoe's claim was valid, but according to Grotius, islands in the sea belonged to the first inhabitant.2 "I was King and Lord of all this Country indefeasibly," Crusoe reminds us, "and had a Right of Possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it in Inheritance, as compleatly as any Lord of a Manner in England" (I, 114). Nor is there any doubt about the kind of monarch he is, for in the passage describing his "Subjects," he reveals his absolute power: "I had the Lives of all my Subjects at my absolute Command. I could hang, draw, give Liberty, and take it away, and no Rebels among all my Subjects" (I, 171). Concerning this speech, Rousseau remarked that Crusoe's despotic powers were indeed unlimited, but only so long as his subjects included no human beings.3 In spite of this witty observation, Defoe seems to suggest that Crusoe's absolute control over the inhabitants of his island continues even after the arrival of men. This presents a problem, for why should Defoe, an ardent opponent of tyranny, have made his hero into a despot?4 In order to understand Defoe's purpose, we must re-1The Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Shakespeare Head ed. (Oxford, 1927), I, 148. Subsequent citations from this work and The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe enclosed within parentheses in my text will refer to this edition.

International Journal of English and Studies, 2021

Although New-Historicism and Reader-response literary theories suggest different attempts in the generation of meaning, in fact, they exist in separate domains. However, the connection between them is a matter of the existence of a text. Without doubt, on the most basic and cursory level, New Historicism is aimed at decoding the manner and culture prevalent in a particular time of history as encoded in the text while Reader-response firmly comes from the strength that a work of art cannot generate meaning for itself without the reader. From this measure of understanding, the clarity in the amalgamation possibility becomes clear. In Robinson Crusoe (1719) analysis here, the intention is to identify the meaning of realism construction the researcher gives to it but within the historical context of the 18th century English novel. On this significant scope the twin theories of New-Historicism and Reader-response become unavoidable tools in the research investigation.

MARX PROFFERS THIS IRONIC ASIDE as a comment on the history of economic thought (he is thinking, his footnote explains, of David Ricardo):

Novel, 2011