230202 Cast Away: Robinson Crusoe and its Literary Legacy (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

Few works of fiction have been as influential as Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719). The story of a man cast away on an uninhabited island immediately captured the imagination of artists and audiences alike. Since its publication the tale has been continually copied, imitated, and adapted. Key features of Defoe's novel appear in so many texts that scholars speak about a genre of its own: the Robinsonade.
This class is going to explore the Robinsonade from the point of view of both literary and cultural studies. We will investigate the genres foundational text, Robinson Crusoe (1719) and trace some of its adaptations in literary fiction.

Bibliography

The class is a block seminar. This means that the entire reading- and workload of a full semester will be have to be packed into five days of class in February (10-4pm + homework). In order to make this feasible, the reading of the primary literature for the class unfortunately needs to be done prior to the beginning of the block seminar.

Please acquire and read an unabridged copy of
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (Oxford World Classics)
- William Golding, Lord of the Flies (Faber)

All other texts will be made available via the Lernraum.