鲁滨逊漂流记中的殖民主义

An Analysis of Colonial

Culture in Robinson Crusoe and Its Reflection

in Reality

I. Introduction

The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a masterpiece of Daniel Defoe, is a pioneer ing English adventure fiction. It mainly tells us a story of the hero Robinso n Crusoe‘s adventure on the sea especially on a deserted island all alone. After a few sails on the sea, he joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa, but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on a deserted island.Robinson Crusoe struggles against hardship, privation, loneliness, and cannibals in his attempt to survive on the deserted island.Finally he succeeds in returning to his hometown England and becomes rich in the end.

But according to the criticisms, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is a typical colonial literature. As Fang Min wrote in his thesis On The Colonial behaviors in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, if we analyze The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe under the post-colonialism, we could find that the fiction reflects the colonial culture in some ways (Fang, 2010). By exploring the colonial culture in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, we can know the thoughts of people in that period and the forms of early colonialism and colonialism.

In this thesis, the author would like to lead the readers to take a brief look at of the colonialism in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, the influence of the colonialism on people today and the reflection of colonial thoughts today.

The author will write it in the following five parts.

First of all, the author will give a brief introduction of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, both the fiction and the author Daniel Defoe.

Second, the author will give a brief introduction of colonialism and colonialism in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and how it is showed in the fiction.

Third, the author will list and analyze the reflection of colonialism today.

Fourth, the author will have a brief look at of the influence of colonialism both in the history and at present.

Fifth, the author will come to a conclusion that we can know a little of colonialism in The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

II. Brief Introduction of the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by Daniel Defoe and was first published in 1719. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Native Americans, captives and mutineers before being rescued. He struggled on the island alone and finally was rescued and went back to England.

2.1 Brief Introduction of Daniel Defoe

Daniel Defoe (ca. 1659-1661 –24 April 1731), born Daniel Foe, was an English w riter, journalist, and pamphleteer, who gained fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularize the form in Britain and is among the founders of the English novel. As a prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural).

Here is a brief introduction of D aniel Defoe‘s life and the motivation of writing Robinson Crusoe

Defoe‘s father was a City tradesman and member of the Butchers‘ Company. James Foe's stubborn Puritanism – The Foes were Dissenters, Protestants who did not belong to the Anglican Church – occasionally comes through Defoe's writing. He studied at Charles Morton's Academy, London. Although his Nonconformist father intended him for the ministry, Defoe plunged into politics and trade, travelling extensively in Europe. Throughout his life, Defoe also wrote about mercantile projects, but his business ventures failed and left him with large debts. But all his experience gave him the life material to complete his works, including his masterpiece Robinson Crusoe.