Defoe′s Narrative Technique in Robinson Crusoe

von: Carolin Damm

Table of Contents

1. Introduction p. 2

2. Genre p. 3

2.1 Desert Island Fiction p. 4
2.2 Religious Allegory p. 4

3. Structure p. 7

4. Narrative Situation p. 9

5. Language and Style p. 10

5.1 Fictional Realism p. 10
5.2 Tone p. 13
5.3 Vocabulary p. 15
5.4 Figures of Speech p. 16

5.4.1 Motifs p. 17
5.4.2 Metaphors p. 18
5.4.3 Images p. 18

a) Animal Images p. 18
b) The Double Image of the Island p. 19

5.4.4 Irony of Situation p. 20

6. Conclusion p. 21

7. Bibliography p. 23

1. Introduction

With the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 the novel became established as a significant literary genre. In this connection Daniel Defoe set new standards for a long period. With his The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe he laid the foundations of the contemporary Robinsonade. “With its common hero, pseudo-authentic style, and focus on ideological problems of materialism and individualism, it has been widely seen as the first modern realist novel” ¹, the critic David Fausett writes. But in the history of interpretation there are dissensions about Defoe’s role in the development of the novel. His style although it revolutionised the English novel, first was a topic for extensive discussions.

From Maximillian E. Novak we get to know that “many of Defoe`s critics have regarded his fiction as a kind of accident arising from his desperate need to support his family and to keep off his creditors.“² In the Rise of the Novel Ian Watt goes so far as to say that Defoe “is perhaps a unique example of a great writer who was very little interested in literature, and says nothing of interest about it as literature.“³ In contrast Hammond underlines the novel’s “lasting significance” that “surely lies in its consummate blending of divergent literary traditions and its fruitfulness as a source of myth.“⁴ Furthermore he concludes that “a story that has achieved the status of a fable must possess considerably literary and imaginative qualities and respond to some deep need in the human psyche.“⁵

Because there must be something in Defoe’s style and narrative technique that justifies the novel’s position in literature some critics have already tried to find an explanation for Defoe’s role in the rise of the novel. According to Ganzel it is the presentation of Crusoe’s religious concern as a central event of the book that is an intellectual justification for the novel.⁶ If we believe Novak "Defoe was able to please his audience (…) by his realistic technique. And through realism Defoe was to find a justification for fiction which was both aesthetic and didactic."⁷

As we can see the opinions of Defoe’s literary style and qualities differ a lot. To see what his narrative abilities really are we need to ha ve a close look at the novel itself. Therefore my preferred questions are ‘How do we read the novel nowadays?’, or in other words, ‘To which genre does Robinson Crusoe belong?’. Further I want to analyse the structure and the narrative situation. And not at least I want to examine Defoe’s language and style in detail to draw a picture of his narrative qualities. In analysing different aspects of language and style of Robinson Crusoe we should come closer to an explanation for the novel’s ‘lasting significance’ and its important role in English literature.

2. Genre:

Genre is a French term for a literary type or class. The different literary kinds or genres are distinguished by conventions and rules to which writers are expected to follow. Conventions are essential to all literature as "necessary and convenient ways of working within the limitations of the medium of words."⁸ According to Montgomery, the most obvious importance of the idea of genre involves "seeing conventions in a text instead of assuming the text to be a kind of unmediated human expression or way of getting at social meaning or truth."⁹ Because every writer accepts conventions as soon as he begins to write the idea of genre has a central position, as a part of a skill of critical reading. This means one has to recognise "that human creativity and the particular meanings texts create, are not fully ′original′, but are build up by exploiting already-existing resources or patterns." ¹⁰ It is self-evident that Robinson Crusoe follows special conventions too and therefore it can be classified as desert island fiction and religious allegory.

2.1 Desert Island Fiction:

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1 Fausett, David. 1994. The Strange Surprizing Sources of ’Robinson Crusoe’. Amsterdam: Rodopi, p. 25.

2 Novak, Maximillian E. “Defoe`s Theory of Fiction.“ In: Heidenreich, Regina und Helmut, eds. 1982. Daniel Defoe: Schriften zum Erzählwerk. (Wege der Forschung. Vol. 339). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, p. 182.

3 Watt, Ian. 1957. The Rise of the Novel. Berkeley, p. 70.

4 Hammond, John R. 1993. A Defoe Companion. MD: Barnes & Noble, p. 67.

5 ibid., p. 67.

6 See Ganzel, Dewey. “Chronology in Robinson Crusoe“. In: Heidenreich, Regina und Helmut, eds. 1982. Daniel Defoe: Schriften zum Erzählwerk. (Wege der Forschung. Vol. 339). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, p. 68.

7 Novak, Maximillian E. “Defoe`s Theory of Fiction.“ In: Heidenreich, Regina und Helmut, eds. 1982. Daniel Defoe: Schriften zum Erzählwerk. (Wege der Forschung. Vol. 339). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, p. 189.

8 "Convention." The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 41998

9 Montgommery, Martin et al. 1992. Ways of Reading. Advanced Skills for Students of English Literature. London: Routledge, p. 174.

10 ibid., p. 174.