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Castaway Tales: From Robinson Crusoe to Life of Pi
Synopsis
A wide-ranging and appreciative literary history of the castaway tale from Defoe to the present
Ever since Robinson Crusoe washed ashore, the castaway story has survived and prospered, inspiring a multitude of writers of adventure fiction to imitate and adapt its mythic elements. In his brilliant critical study of this popular genre, Christopher Palmer traces the castaway tales' history and changes through periods of settlement, violence, and reconciliation, and across genres and languages. Showing how subsequent authors have parodied or inverted the castaway tale, Palmer concentrates on the period following H. G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau.
These much darker visions are seen in later novels including William Golding's Lord of the Flies, J. G. Ballard's Concrete Island, and Iain Banks's The Wasp Factory. In these and other variations, the castaway becomes a cannibal, the castaway's island is relocated to center of London, female castaways mock the traditional masculinity of the original Crusoe, or Friday ceases to be a biddable servant. By the mid-twentieth century, the castaway tale has plunged into violence and madness, only to see it return in young adult novels--such as Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins and Terry Pratchett's Nation--to the buoyancy and optimism of the original. The result is a fascinating series of revisions of violence and pessimism, but also reconciliation.
Contents:
- Acknowledgments Introduction
- PART 1: SETTLEMENT
- The Sea Captain and the Perfect Mango: Revision and Parody in Castaway Narratives
- The Swiss Family Robinson to The Mysterious Island and Beyond: Vicissitudes of the Crusoe Template
- PART 2: VIOLENCE
- Moreau and Its Progeny: Abstraction and Violence
- Successors of Moreau: Madness and Cannibalism
- PART 3: RECONCILIATION
- Always Another Island: Females and Fridays
- Recent Children's Novels: Recognizing Indigeneity, Facing Death
- Recent Science Fiction Novels: Science Reaffirmed, Nature Rethought
- Conclusion: Living Phenomena
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
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