Daniel Defoe & Robinson Crusoe

Dissenters & British Culture   The “reformation” of the church in England—which created the Church of England (aka Anglican)—is limited in comparison with that of other Protestant countries such as the Netherlands.   Puritans believe the Church of England is not yet purified of Roman Catholic (“Papist”) tendencies; they promote direct access to Scripture, unmediated by tradition, clergy, ritual. They also often believe in predestination. “Dissenters” then emphasize personal religious experience and God’s grace rather than dependence on the institutions of an official church.   Dissenters also tend to be politically radical; they reject the idea that the monarch is God’s anointed representative—that he has a “divine right” to be king.   Dissenters are grudgingly tolerated during Defoe’s life, but are barred from the government, the military, and all major schools.   “We shall nevertheless provisionally use the expression 'spirit of capitalism' for that attitude which, in the pursuit of a calling, strives systematically for profit for its own sake.” Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Spiritual Autobiography Sinful youth Growing anxiety about the state of one’s soul Cycles of repentance and relapse into sin Deep state of despair and/or feeling of helplessness Spiritual “conversion”—very emotional— accompanied the personal conviction that one has been called by God for salvation Living as one of the “elect”: attempts to interpret and follow God’s will; continuing spiritual trials, though of a less dramatic variety Impulse to instruct and/or testify to others

Daniel Defoe ( ) Born as Daniel Foe, into a middle-class Dissenting family. Father intended him to become a minister, and Defoe received an excellent education at a Dissenting academy. Becomes a merchant at age 20, marries, and eventually has many children. Engages in trade sporadically throughout his life. Participates in a failed rebellion to depose James II; after James is deposed in 1688, Defoe becomes a journalist, pamphleteer, and occasional secret agent, and drifts in and out of political favor—and debtor’s prisons. Defoe writes conduct books (including one for families), pamphlets, a tradesman’s guide, a travel guide, satirical verse, and many other texts in addition to his major works: Robinson Crusoe is his first novel, published when Defoe was almost 60 years old.

Robinson Crusoe (1719)   Probably based in part on the experience of Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who was marooned for four years on an uninhabited South Pacific island—although Defoe places Crusoe on an island off the Orinoco river delta   Robinson Crusoe was an immediate hit; it went through several editions and Defoe produced a sequel—The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe—later that year.   The “novel” was indeed innovative at the time, but Defoe draws upon two earlier genres: the travel/adventure tale, and the spiritual autobiography.   Defoe published five more novels; most are set in London, and two have female narrators (Moll Flanders and Roxana). All are autobiographical novels.

Study Questions What types of family/kinship are depicted in the novel? How does Crusoe interact with these different iterations of family? How does Robinson Crusoe experience and interact with his environment? How is nature characterized throughout the text? How does Defoe characterize slavery and imperialism? What is the nature of Crusoe’s attitude towards—and interactions with—non-white individuals? What is the nature of Crusoe’s spirituality—and how might it relate to his secular activities? In what ways does Defoe employ the conventions of spiritual autobiography, and to what effect(s)? How are the conventions of realism and romance integrated with the text? What purposes might they serve—and what effect(s) do they have on the narrative?

Weeks 1-2 Literary/Cultural Terms Dissenter spiritual autobiography predestination original sin autobiographical novel “utile et dulce” bourgeois Verisimilitude Narrator: 1 st person 2 nd person 3 rd person limited 3 rd person omniscient 3 rd person objective unreliable narrator