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The Empire Writes Back:

Robinson Crusoe

Page Index

Click these links to go to the major sub-sections.

• Defoe Writes the Empire -- Robinson Crusoe
  
  
• Caribbean Responses-authors alphabetized
  
  

Writing the Empire

Daniel Defoe (England), Robinson Crusoe

• Plot Summary of Robinson Crusoe
• ROBINSON CRUSOE: Read Chapters XI, XIV, XV. (NOTE: If the following links don't work,use one of these e-texts: Alternate-1: Robinson Crusoe or Alternate-2: Robinson Crusoe.)
  • CHAPTER I - START IN LIFE
  • CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND ESCAPE
  • CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
  • CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS ON THE ISLAND
  • CHAPTER V - BUILDS A HOUSE - THE JOURNAL
  • CHAPTER VI - ILL AND CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN
  • CHAPTER VII - AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE
  • CHAPTER VIII - SURVEYS HIS POSITION
  • CHAPTER IX - A BOAT
  • CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS
  • CHAPTER XI - FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S FOOT ON THE SAND
  • CHAPTER XII - A CAVE RETREAT
  • CHAPTER XIII - WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP
  • CHAPTER XIV - A DREAM REALISED
  • CHAPTER XV - FRIDAY'S EDUCATION
  • CHAPTER XVI - RESCUE OF PRISONERS FROM CANNIBALS
  • CHAPTER XVII - VISIT OF MUTINEERS
  • CHAPTER XVIII - THE SHIP RECOVERED
  • CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO ENGLAND
  • CHAPTER XX - FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR

• Background Information--summarizes several helpful approaches to the novel.
• Daniel Defoe--biography.
• Robinson Crusoe: Overview and Commentary
• Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity--important post-colonial concepts applied to Defoe's novel.
• Comeback on a Castaway's Island--the past devastation and current recovery of the Selkirk-Robinson Crusoe Islands.

Caribbean Responses

General

• The Islands of Poetry--Rajeev S Patke's scholarly essay; many examples from Walcott and Brathwaite.
• The Real Caribbean: Paradise Stops At the Beach's Edge-- very informative news article.
• African-Caribbean Resistance Culture: Past and Contemporary--excellent summary.

Opal Palmer Adisa (Jamaica)

• The Brethren --e-text; story.
• Opal Palmer Adisa--biography.

C. L. R. James (Trinidad)

• Biography
• Triumph--e-text; short story. (Alternate copy: Alternate Text: Triumph).

Earl Lovelace (Trinidad & Tobago)

• Earl Lovelace --biography and commentary on Dragon Can't Dance
• From the I-lands-- speech by Lovelace on why he writes and uses black folk traditions.
• Lovelace--biography and excellent discussion of Dragon Can't Dance and other novels.
• Poetry of Paradox in Dragon Can't Dance--helpful essay.
• The Emancipation-Jouvay Tradition and the Almost Loss of Pan--Lovelace's discussion of carnival.
• The Impotence of Dragons: Playing Devil in the Trinidad Carnival--Harris' article includes references to Dragon Can't Dance

Bob Marley (Jamaica)

• 25 Lyrics --from Time Will Tell
• Slave Driver--lyrics.

Olive Senior (Jamaica)

• Meditation on Yellow --e-text; poem.

Derek Walcott (St. Lucia)

• A Far Cry from Africa--e-text
• Walcott Short Poems--e-texts for "Perang" and "A Far Cry from Africa."
• Selections from In a Green Night (1962)--e-texts: "A Far Cry from Africa" and "Sea Chantey" plus other poems.
• Selections from The Castaway (1965), The Gulf (1970), Sea Grapes (1976), and The Star-Apple Kingdom (1979)--e-texts: "The Castaway"; "Crusoe's Island"; "Crusoe's Journal," plus generous excerpts from Walcott's speech "The Figure of Crusoe."
• Pentecost--e-text; poem.
• Codicil--e-text; poem.
• Tomorrow, Tomorrow--e-text; poem.
• Caribbean Poems by Walcott--scroll down the page to Walcott's name; links to nine poems: "Sea Grapes"; "Parades, Parades"; "Names"; "The Wind in the Dooryard"; "Sea Canes"; "Air"; "Blues"; "Codicil"; "The River."
• Derek Walcott--good biography with commentary.
• The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory--Walcott's Nobel Prize speech.
• Walcott--biography and commentary, with images.
• Walcott Biography--biography and commentary.
• Biography/Commentary.
• Pantomime and Polyrhythm--commentary on Pantomime.
• Study Questions: Pantomime
• Review of Walcott's Poetry
• Derek Walcott and the Poetics of "Transport"--Terada's scholarly article.
• Colonialism, Gender, and Lyric Identity: Refigurations of Crusoe in the Poetry of Elizabeth Bishop and Derek Walcott--McCorkle's scholarly conference paper.

Joseph Zobel (Martinique)

• Sugar Realism in Caribbean Fiction-- Lockard's scholarly article on Joseph Zobel's "sugar novel" Black Shack Alley (movie version: Sugar Cane Alley).
• Study Guide for Sugar Cane Alley [movie]
• Three Movie Reviews-- scroll down to the bottom of the page.
• Sugar Cane Alley

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Comments/Suggestions: knichols@pittstate.edu

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Updated: 1-24-03

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