Robinsonade

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

Since its publication in 1719 Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has been adopted into the cultural imagination of all societies in the world. Indeed, the story of Robinson's solitary survival on his desert island has achieved the status of myth. Defoe's text has not only been endlessly reprinted (one count made in the 1990s puts the figure at well over 700 editions) and translated into virtually every written language, including those no one speaks, such as Esperanto and shorthand, and its story has been edited and revised into versions for almost every age and condition of childhood from baby-books to teenage-readers. A great number and vast array of texts imitating Robinson Crusoe have also been produced over almost t…

2575 words

Citation: O'Malley, Andrew. "Robinsonade". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 March 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1717, accessed 25 November 2024.]

1717 Robinsonade 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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