Abstract
This chapter is concerned with Robinson Crusoe’s for the most part solitary life on the island, from the shipwreck to the encounter with Friday and its aftermath. The aim is to shed light on Robinson’s longing for, and by extension Defoe’s commentary upon, sociability. It is argued that in Defoe’s novel there is an implied ideal of “natural sociability”, based on an atavistic use of language. This ideal is hinted at when Robinson longs for a speaking companion, finds compensation in his “animal family”, including the speaking parrot Poll, and enjoys his first moments with Friday. In the end, however, Defoe fails to elaborate upon the ideal, prioritizing Robinson’s unwavering belief in the centrality of discourse, as opposed to natural speech, and ideologically biased conversation.
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Notes
- 1.
Novak also uses the above quote as an epigraph to his Robinson Crusoe chapter in Daniel Defoe: Master of Fictions (2001, 535).
- 2.
This ideal was best reflected in Reveries of the Solitary Walker (1782; English translation in 1783). See Rousseau (1979).
- 3.
In a different context, G. A. Starr writes about Defoe’s theory of passions and remarks that “the passions that most worry Defoe are the ones that turn men into beasts” (2018, 82n8).
- 4.
For an excellent discussion of Defoe’s complex treatment of the theme of silence, see Sherman (2009, 12–31).
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Lipski, J. (2021). Robinson Crusoe: Speech, Conversation, Sociability. In: Domsch, S., Hansen, M. (eds) British Sociability in the European Enlightenment. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52567-5_11
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