英国文学之丹尼尔笛福——鲁滨孙漂流记 DanielDefoe and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe

1、I TOPIC: Daniel Defoe and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe（Excerpt）,II OBJECTIVES: A) Introduction to Daniel Defoe and his works B) About Adventures of Robinson Crusoe C) Study of the text 1. The main idea of this part 2. Descriptions in detail D) Brief comment on the novel E) Assignment,Daniel Defoe,

2、the founder of the English novel. one of the earliest realists, a representative of successful man.,Topic 1Introduction to Daniel Defoe and his works,1.1 Facts of Daniel Defoe 1) He never went to university. 2) His business underwent many ups and downs. 3) The Glorious Revolution an enthusiastic sup

3、porter.,4) When his trade was ruined in Williams war with France, he took up writing. (“The True-born Englishmen”“The Shortest Way with the Dissenters,” “Hymn to the pillory”, “The Review”) 5) In May 1703, Defoe was arrested and put in prison, and after his release Defoe redoubled his activities as

4、a journalist and pamphleteer.,Brief comment on Defoe,liberal mind. advanced in opinion. the Puritan ethic. diligence, self-reliance and fortitude. ready enough to embrace all the people.,Topic 2Defoes works,1. Moll Flanders（1722） the personal history of the titular heroine. the daughter of a woman t

5、hief. taken into the home of a mayor. seduced and then deserted. as a prostitute, five marriages. theft. lives in prosperity.,2. A Journal of the Plague Year（1722）,the Great Plague of London（166465）. an eyewitness account of the disaster. one of the first and most gifted pieces of historical reconst

6、ruction. the care for persistent record of the detail of daily life.,Topic 3Special features of his works,1. his real concern for his time：mans struggle against his natural and social environment. The Puritan virtues of self-reliance, diligence, patience, fortitude and thrift. exploitation, poverty,

7、 moral degeneration, corruption, cheating, desertion prosperity, respectability, expansion and wealth. 2. in picaresque tradition, tracing the wandering life of the hero or heroine.,3. a strong verisimilitude: the autobiographical form and to describe things and happenings in great detail and use sp

8、ecific time and place. 4. His language is smooth, easy, colloquial and mostly vernacular, but never coarse.,Topic 2About Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,“Robinson Crusoe”(1719), supposedly based on the real adventure of an Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernande

9、z for five years, is, in fact, a work of sheer imagination.,A fictitious biography,Preface of Robinson Crusoe,If ever the story of any private mans adventures in the world were worth making public, and were acceptable when published, the editor of this account thinks this will be so. The wonders of

10、this mans life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the life of one man being scarce capable of a greater variety.,The story is told with modesty, with seriousness, and with a religious application of events to the uses to which wise men always apply them (viz.) to the instruction of o

11、thers by this example, and to justify and honor the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of our circumstances, let them happen how they will. The editor believes the thing to be a just history of fact; neither is there any appearance of fiction in it.,About the image of Robinson：,the representati

12、ve of the bourgeois of the 18th century，a typical of 18th century middle-class tradesman, the prototype of the true empire builder, the pioneer colonist. the courage and the will to face hardships, and determination to preserve himself and improve on his livelihood by struggling nature. a man with g

13、reat creativity and working capacity.,1. shipwrecked and finds himself on an uninhabited island, 2. build a fortified place, grows barley and rice, domesticates the goats, makes a boat, fights the cannibals and has innumerable mishaps before he is carried home by an English ship.,The plot of the nov

14、el,Theme,1. celebrate the 18th-century Western civilizations material triumphs and the strength of human rational will to conquer the natural environment. 2. the bourgeois qualities of individualism an embodiment of the spirit of individual enterprise and colonial expansion of the rising bourgeoisie

15、. 3. a typical 18th-century middle-class tradesman, the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. 4. His success is shown as due to the sturdy qualities in his character, to his own unaided-efforts, to his courage and patience, to his practical skill, and his intelligent persistenc

16、e. In another sense, Robinson is Everyman struggling to master nature. 5. the epic theme of the average man to preserve life and to organize economy in the face of the most unpromising environment.,Topic 5Study of the text,1. The main idea of this part In the first days when Robinson is cast onto th

17、e shore of an island，he tries to build himself a dwelling. He first chooses a good site for the building of a shelter on the side for a rising hill, whose front is as steep as a wall so that no wild animals can come down upon him from the top. He then sets up his tent on the little plain in front of

18、 the hill and fortifies it with strong stakes so that his new dwelling becomes almost a fortress. He enters and gets out of the fortress by a short ladder. In this fortress he brings all the provisions that he has got from the ship. As his tent is set against the steep side of a hill, he digs into t

19、he hillside and makes himself a cave in which he stores some of his more important possessions such as gunpowder. In the intervals of his work, he roams around the island and finds that there are some wild goats on it and he is able to shoot some for food. Here the author presents vividly and realis

20、tically how manages to survive on a hazardous strange island that is far from modern civilization.,2. The description of building his fortress,“My thoughts were now wholly employed to give an account of ”： It tells us the reason why he tries to build a dwelling against the attack of cannibals and wi

21、ld animals. 2) “I soon found the place I was more convenient spot of ground”：It implies that Robinson is practical. 3) “I consulted several things in my situation to banish all my expectation yet ”：It presents a place where Robinson can live on a good condition, indicating that Robinson is a courage

22、ous, energetic hard-working, practical, resourceful and self-reliant middle-class hero.,4) “Before I set up my tent drive them into the earth.”： Defoe tells us not only that something is done, but how it is done. Lifelikeness is achieved by the insistence on detail：the size of the fence and its buil

23、ding materials. We can see Defoe takes pains to convince his readers that what he is writing about is “real life”. The supreme quality in the novel is its sense of reality, its lifelikeness. The description with great details conveys how a modern man manages to survive on the island far from modern

24、civilization by making use of his knowledge and the materials from the civilized society.,3. The description of storing all his goods,1) “Into this tent I brought all my provisions ” 2) “ I made me a cave just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.” 3) “ and applied myself to mak

25、e bags and boxes to separate the powder, and keep it a little and a little in a parcel” “ I think my powder, which in all was about 240 l. weight was divided in not less than a hundred parcels.”,4. The description of handling wild goats,1) “The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she

26、-goat which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to which grieved me heartily; but the old one fell in hopes to have bred it up tame, but it would not eat, so I was forced to kill it and eat it myself I eat sparingly, and saved my provisions（my bread especially）as much as possibly I could. ”：

27、 (1) This is a very significant sentence with great details that reveals the character of Robinson. “which grieved me heartily” expresses he feels very sincerely grieved because he finds that he has killed a she-goat, thus leaving the kid motherless.,(3) “eat it myself” only when he finds that it is

28、 impossible to be raised. This shows that although he kills, he is not a cold-blooded killer. He is practical but merciful; he cares about his own interest with a due regard to the principle of humanity and a respect for life. (4) “in hopes to have bred it up tame”：His attempt to raise the little go

29、at shows his spirit of cultivation.,(5) “I eat sparingly”：His sparing consumption reflects the bourgeois value of economy. These facts help to portray Robinson as a typical representative of the enlightened men of the rising bourgeoisie who are economical-minded, pioneering and humanistic. Defoes wr

30、iting style is also clearly demonstrated here. With its loose structure, the long sentence rambles on and on. But the facts are orderly presented and the meaning is very clear, thus making easy understanding.,Topic 4 Brief comment on the novel,Comment 1 The novel “Robinson Crusoe” tells the story of

31、 the titular heros adventure on a deserted island. Robinson Crusoe, longing to see the wonders of the world, runs away from home, and after many setbacks, settles down in Brazil. The call of the sea attracts him a second voyage in which he is brought along to an island after the shipwreck in a storm

32、. Through many hardships, he finds ways to get daily necessities from the wrecked ship to the store, and settles on the island for twenty four years. During the years, he tries to make himself a living in one way or another, rescues a savage whom he names Friday, and builds up a comfortable home for

33、 himself. Finally they are picked up and saved by an English ship and return to England.,With an inevitable trace of colonialism, the novel depicts a hero who grows from an inexperienced youth into a shrewd and hardened man. The adventures of Robinson Crusoe on the island is a song of his courage, his wisdom, and his struggle against the hostile natural environment. As the very prototype of empire builder and the pioneer colonist, Robinson Crusoe can be seen as an individualistic man who carries human labor and the Puri