Defoe's Narrative Technique in Robinson Crusoe

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: With the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 the novel becameestablished as a significant literary genre. In this connection Daniel Defoeset new standards for a long period. With his The Life and StrangeSurprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe he laid the foundations of thecontemporary Robinsonade. “With its common hero, pseudo-authenticstyle, and focus on ideological problems of materialism and individualism,it has been widely seen as the first modern realist novel” 1, the critic DavidFausett writes. But in the history of interpretation there are dissensionsabout Defoe’s role in the development of the novel. His style although itrevolutionised the English novel, first was a topic for extensivediscussions.From Maximillian E. Novak we get to know that “many of Defoe`s criticshave regarded his fiction as a kind of accident arising from his desperateneed to support his family and to keep off his creditors.“2 In the Rise of theNovel Ian Watt goes so far as to say that Defoe “is perhaps a uniqueexample of a great writer who was very little interested in literature, andsays nothing of interest about it as literature.“3 In contrast Hammondunderlines the novel’s “lasting significance” that “surely lies in itsconsummate blending of divergent literary traditions and its fruitfulness asa source of myth.“4 Furthermore he concludes that “a story that hasachieved the status of a fable must possess considerably literary andimaginative qualities and respond to some deep need in the humanpsyche.“5Because there must be something in Defoe’s style and narrative techniquethat justifies the novel’s position in literature some critics have alreadytried to find an explanation for Defoe’s role in the rise of the novel. [...]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.