Lecture 7 Robinson_Crusoe.ppt

1、Lecture 5 daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe,1. Daniel Defoe 2. Robinson Crusoe,Daniel Defoe(1660-1731),contents,Defoes reputation and facts to be remembered A list of Defoes works before 1719 Defoes novels A case study of Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders A list of Defoes other important writings The feature

2、s of Daniel Defoes novels,Defoe was one of the first to write stories about believable characters in realistic. situations using simple prose. Defoe is considered the founder of the English novel. Before his time stories were usually written as long poems or dramas. Defoe created a realistic frame f

3、or the novel, which distinguished it from its predecessors.,Reputation,Five Facts to be Remembered,Defoe was a jack-at-all-trades, who developed his interests largely with the working classes. He was a radical Non-conformist (非国教)in religion, and was intended by his father for the independent minist

4、ry. Defoe was a journalist and pamphleteer. Be good at making “good story”. Defoe knew prison life. At the age of nearly 60, he turned to fiction and wrote the great work by which he is best remembered. Robinson Crusoe earned him good reputation and fortune as well.,contents,Defoes reputation and fa

5、cts to be remembered A list of Defoes works before 1719 Defoes novels A case study of Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders A list of Defoes other important writings The features of Daniel Defoes novels,An Essay Upon Projects （ 1697）, proposing a national highway system, a national banking system, simple la

6、ws for settling business disputes, and a scheme for shipwreck and fire insurance-measures that all modern industrialized states have put into practice. The Trueborn Englishman (1701),真正的英国人 His best-known pamphlet which exposes the aristocracy and the tyranny of the church. The Shortest Way with the

7、 Dissenters (1702),消灭不同教派的捷径 satarizes the English High Churchs 英国国教suppression of Dissenters at all cost. A Hymn to the Pillory (1703),He voiced his anger over the shameful punishment, courageous attack on the injustice of Englands legal system. He was cheered by people as a hero to defend himself.

8、 The Review (1704-1713),评论 a political and literary magazine started by Defoe.,contents,Defoes reputation and facts to be remembered A list of Defoes works before 1719 Defoes novels A case study of Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders A list of Defoes other important writings The features of Daniel Defoes

9、novels,A case study of Robinson Crusoe,Defoes Robinson Crusoe was one of the forerunners of the English realistic novel, which won him the title of “father of the English novel”. It creates the image of an enterprising Englishman, typical of the English bourgeoisie of the 18th century.,Background on

10、 the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,Background on the novel,It was based on the true adventures of a Scottish sailor, Alexander Selkirk, who had been marooned on one of the Juan Fernndez Islands off the coas

11、t of Chile for 5 years. The story reveals the essence of British colonialism .,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,Crusoe runs away from home because he wants to become a sailor while his father

12、 insists that he should study law. The ship he takes is badly damaged in a storm near a small island. Crusoe is the only crew member who survives the shipwreck.,He manages to get a few things from the ship. Being isolated from civilization, he has to find ways to make a living all by himself.,He bui

13、lds himself a hut ,domesticates goats, makes a boat and hunts with a gun. he finds strength from Gods message in the Bible.,Many years go by and one day the island is visited by the local cannibals. Crusoe saved a black man from death and he later names him Friday. They become good friends.,After li

14、ving almost thirty years on the island, he is eventually rescued by an English ship and returns to England.,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,Mans struggles against nature Glorification of the

15、 bourgeois men who has the courage and will to face hardship and determination to improve his livelihood. Glorification of labor (Robinson lives on his own hands),Theme,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing styl

16、e Comments,The image of Robinson Crusoe,One of the representative of the rising bourgeoisie An enterprising Englishman A laborer, a hard-working industrious and intelligent man A typical colonizer, explorer, and a foreign trader; He is alert, vigorous and resourceful,The characterization of Crusoe,D

17、efoe traces the development of Crusoe from a nave and artless youth into a clever and hardened man tempered by numerous trials in his eventful life. Crusoe is a hero with undaunted will and power. Crusoe represents a typical of the English bourgeoisie at the early stages of its development, practica

18、l, religious and mindful of his own profits. Crusoe is condemned as an image of a colonist, for he supports Negro-slavery and teaches the first word “master” to Friday.,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing styl

19、e Comments,A friend/servant of Crusoes, he spends a number of years on the island with the main character, who saves him from cannibalistic death. Friday is basically Crusoes protege, a living example of religious justification of the slavery relationship between the two men. His eagerness to be red

20、one in the European image is supposed to convey that this image is indeed the right one.,Friday,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,The Symbolic meaning of the footprint,Crusoes shocking discove

21、ry of a single footprint on the sand is one of the most famous moments in the novel, and it symbolizes our heros conflicted feelings about human companionship. Crusoe has earlier confessed how much he misses companionship, yet the evidence of a man on his island sends him into a panic. Immediately h

22、e interprets the footprint negatively, as the print of the devil or of an aggressor. This instinctively negative and fearful attitude toward others makes us consider the possibility that Crusoe may not want to return to human society after all, and that the isolation he is experiencing may actually

23、be his ideal state.,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,Realistic style, true to life, in details Smooth, simple, colloquial language Long sentences are loose; short sentences are plain, easy to

24、 understand Presents facts in order, the meaning is clear,Writing style,Background on the novel Main Story The Theme The image of Robinson Crusoe Friday The Symbolic meaning of the footprint Writing style Comments,comments,To read it politically, we may interpret the story as an artistic projection

25、of colonial expansion. Crusoe, backed by advanced technology (the gun), conquers a less civilized people represented by Man Friday. Though they become good friends, Friday has remained a servant, if not a slave, to his master Crusoe since the first day they met.,To read it socially, we find that Cru

26、soes adventures imply different Western cultural values. This novel sings a song of “the dignity of labor,” a slogan which the bourgeoisie used to justify their accumulation of wealth though diligent work and colonial expansion. Robinson is a self-made man. He succeeds in creating a new life all thr

27、ough his own efforts.,The novel also explores the theme of “back to nature.” Industrialization brought England material wealth, but it also ended the peaceful life in the countryside and created appalling poverty in the city. The novel expressed a desire to go back to a more economic and basic life

28、style.,There is also the theme of “religious devotion.” Completely separated from civilization, Crusoe reflects upon mans frailty and Gods mercy. Just as Moses came out of the wilderness with a fuller understanding of the sustaining power of religion, Crusoe finds the need, after being thrown into t

29、he wilderness of the island, for prayer and repentance, and finds that inner peace does not come from material possessions but from communication with God.,contents,Defoes reputation and facts to be remembered A list of Defoes works before 1719 Defoes novels A case study of Robinson Crusoe Moll Flan

30、ders A list of Defoes other important writings The features of Daniel Defoes novels,Moll Flanders (1722) was among the most important novels in 18th-century England. It relates the adventures of a London prostitute, a woman “twelve years a whore, five times a wife, and twelve years a thief, eight ye

31、ars a transported felon in Virginia.” After suffering all types of misfortunes, Moll finally settles down and comfortable life on her plantation in America.,Moll Flanders attempted to break away from the didactic tradition in early English novels. Defoe emphasized that the environment in which one g

32、rew up and lived was the decisive element in the orientation of ones behavior. Virtue eventually prevails at the end of the novel, but how the degenerated woman, no matter how unfortunate she is ,finally becomes a moral heroine after living a full life of crime has puzzled many of its readers.,contents,Defoes reputation and facts to be remembered A list of Defoes works before 1719 Defoes novels A case study of Robinson Crusoe Moll Flanders A list of Defoes other important writings The features of Daniel Defoes novels,Defoes other important writings,Captain Singleton (1