Children's Literature, Popular Culture, and Robinson Crusoe

This study of the afterlife of Robinson Crusoe offers insights into the continued popularity and relevance of Crusoe's story and how modern conceptions of childhood are shaped by nostalgia and ideas of 'the popular'. Examining many adaptations in a variety of formats, it reconsiders the place Crusoe has occupied in our culture for three centuries.

'This is a beautifully researched and intricately thought-out work of scholarship, whose apparently modest scope is deceptive, since the book ultimately pushes towards a far-reaching and provocative conclusion: that Robinson Crusoe, by heralding the future 'as modernity' and evoking the past 'as nostalgia', performs 'the kind of fundamentally contradictory cultural work into whose service the idea of childhood itself has been called for at least the last two centuries'' - Louise Joy, University of Cambridge, UK

'O'Malley's recognition of Robinson Crusoe as an enduring media event will, one hopes, spur other scholars to revisit the history of

this western classic and consider that Crusoe's legacy may not be built upon the power of Defoe's prose or narration, but rather on derivatives and adaptations that were frequently revised to reflect the ideas and values of a rapidly evolving society.' - Jordan Howell, University of Delaware, USA

'Weaving together social history, textual analysis, impressive archival research, and lucid theoretical argument, Children's Literature, Popular Culture, and Robinson Crusoe is a tour de force of scholarship.' - Susan Naramore Maher, Children's Literature Association Quarterly

'O'Malley's study is interesting, insightful, and enjoyable.' - The Year's Work in English Studies

Autorentext
ANDREW O'MALLEY Associate Professor in the Department of English at Ryerson University, Canada. He is the author of The Making of the Modern Child: Children's Literature and Childhood in the Late Eighteenth Century. His research and teaching interests include children's literature and culture, popular culture, and the eighteenth century.

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List of Illustrations Introduction Performing Crusoe and Becoming Crusoes: the Pedagogical uses of Robinson Crusoe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Crusoe Comes Home: Robinsonades and Children's Editions of Robinson Crusoe Poaching on Crusoe's Island: Popular Reading and Chapbook Editions of Robinson Crusoe 'Animal Spirits are Everything!': Robinson Crusoe Pantomimes and the Child of Nostalgia An Island of Toys: Childhood and Robinson Crusoe Consumer Goods Epilogue Bibliography Index