Raffaella Mannori –The rise of the novel 2014-2015
Raffaella MANNORI -The rise of the novel- adapted from The rise of the novel by Ian Watt
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
The most outstanding characteristics of the new literary form are:
1. REALISM
2. INDIVIDUALISM
1. Modern REALISM begins from the position that truth can be discovered by the individual through his senses ( LOCKE4empiricism). (2)
The Novel is the form of literature which most fully reflects this individualistic position4the novelist’s primary task is to convey the impression of fidelity to human experience. It takes its plots from real life not from mythology , history, legends etc.
The attention to details give verisimilitude to the narration. Robinson Crusoe’s story does not matter if the story is true what is important is that it looks like being true thanks to the great amount of details. This mainly because the reading public ( middle class)(1) would be more interested if they thought they were reading the life of a real person
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2. The novel is distinguished from previous form of fiction by the amount of attention it gives to the individualisation of its characters and to the detailed presentation of its environment ( see the use of ordinary contemporary proper name, the interest in in the minute-by-minute and day-by-day temporal and spatial setting, adaptation of prose style to give an air of complete authenticity.
This aspect of individualism is connected to the new outlook of individualism typical of the middle class. All DEFOE’s heroes pursuit money and they pursuit it methodically according to the profit and loss book-keeping( middle class habit of mind.
ROBINSON CRUSOE is not linked to his country by sentimental ties, he is satisfied by people , whatever their nationality, who are good at doing business with . He feels that “ with money in the pocket one is at home everywhere” On the desert island RC realises economic, social and intellectual freedom for the individual . He does not become a savage , he remains a civilised person
ROBINSON CRUSOE
ROBINSON AS THE SUCCESSFUL SELF-MADE MAN Robinson Crusoebelongs to the tradition of theBildungsroman -German for "formation novel" in that it follows the protagonist development in a period of his life. the novel starts with Robinson as a young man who is supposedto obey and respect his father's ideas but knows that he has to work out his own destiny. He breaks with his middle-class background and pressures of his family to face the unknown both because he feels the appeal of adventures and in the name of economic independence. According to the critic Ian Watt, Robinson Crusoe exemplifiesthe homo economicus,the successful self-made man who enjoys and exploits the island where he was shipwrecked.
Raffaella Mannori –The rise of the novel 2014-2015
ROBINSON CRUSOE AS THE PARABLE OF A RELIGIOUS CONVERSION
At the beginning of the novel Robinson is a 19-year-old boy with a rebellious attitude towards middle-class values and also their religious frame of mind. But duringhis long period of solitude he radically changes his mind, starts reading the Bibleand chooses God asthe constant addresseeof his thought. He embodies the myth of the God - fearing and industrious coloniser who brings civilization where savagery had formerly reigned:” The novel is ordinarily viewed as a working out of the Puritan myth of industry, fulfilling labour, the correct combination of faith and good works.
ROBINSON AS THE PROTOTYPE OF THE BRITISH COLONIZER Robinson is in many ways the celebration of theEnglish mercantile spirit. Today Robinson appears to us as the representative of the Englishman who in those years was beginning to colonize the world, turning deserted spots into civilised places and lucrative trading posts. Robinson is the archetype pioneer: he is armed only with his own strength and intelligence, and has a Puritan's firm conviction that he has God on his side. He has been rightly defined as the new homo economicus , representative of the early 18th -century Englishmen who were founding Britain's commercial empire in countries as far away as Canada or India. Robinson Crusoe is also thearchetype colonist.This becomes clear especially in the last part of the novel, after he has met Friday. Their relation perfectly describes the pattern of the relation between colonist and native, or master and slave. Robinson's education of Friday closely recalls the processes ofmodern colonialism, which follow a recurrent pattern:
· name giving- he gives Friday a new name which is meant always to remind the Indian of his debt to the white man (he was saved by Robinson on a Friday); Friday, on the other hand, must call him "master"
· new (European) clothes-Robinson covers Friday's nakedness by giving him worn-out European clothes; Friday "was very pleased to see himself almost as well dressed as his master";
· new (European ) language -Robinson doesn't bother to learn Friday's language but teaches him enough English to understand him and follows his orders;,
· new religion- Robinson teaches Friday the principles of Christianity;
· technical superiority- Robinson never gives Friday a weapon and is even careful never to let him see how he loads his gun.
· LINKS AND CONNECTIONS "ROUSSEAU AND ROBINSON : THE MYTH OF THE NATURAL MAN Rosseau (1660-1731)In the 18th century many philosophers and scientists put forward a view of the universe as a living organism (this view was also favoured by the discoveries of the new science, biology, which showed how living organisms were not fixed but subject to change and evolution). In simplified form: nature is good, and the closer man is to nature the better he/she is. From this idea comes the myth of thebon sauvage and of the myth of thegood natural manwhich will be central to both the English Enlightenment and Romanticism. Its main exponent was the French- Swiss philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In hisDiscours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommeshe considers society to have spoilt the freedom and virtue of primitive peoples who lived closed to Nature. Rousseau deals with this theme in his two best known works: the novelLa nouvelle Héloiseand the political treatiseDu Contrat Social, in which he argues that the basis of society is artificial and advocates a return to nature.
· Rousseau's reading of Defoe's novel Rousseau wanted his philosophy of Man and Nature to be at the core of the modern educational system. In this view he wroteEmile, in which he says that only by stimulating the natural impulses and interests of the child can a true education be achieved. To do so, according to Rousseau, no books are a necessity except one,Robinson Crusoe:"The one book that teaches all that books can teach". Defoe's novel is considered essential to a child's education especially for two reasons: it shows him/her how to satisfy only natural or primitive necessities, such as those experienced by Robinson on the island; also, Robinson embodies one of Rousseau's favourite ideas: a radical, that is complete, individualism.
· Modern readings of Defoe's novel Rousseau's view of Robinson Crusoe, however, seems idealized, or perfectly suited to his own philosophy. Modern critics and readers have pointed out that, in fact, Defoe and Rousseau had very different ideas of nature.
1) Robinson, in the first place, doesn't choose to live a natural life in a deserted place, as Rousseau's heroes do: he is forced into solitude and lives the island as soon as he can.
2) Secondly, Defoe mainly conceived of nature as a resource to be exploited economically. Robinson alone on the island doesn't feel closer to nature, nor does he lose much time philosophizing. The absolute freedom from social restraints which Rousseau asks for man is used by Robinson to exploit the island, first alone and then with the help of Friday who provides him withfree labour force. As a critic has pointed out: "For the original Crusoe, 'nature' is appealing not for adoration but for exploitation.
The novel narrated in the first person as though it were an actual autobiographical account, shows the shipwrecked trader trying to rebuild the whole pattern of the material and moral word he has left behind.
ROBINSON is not an adventurer who goes to sea in search of excitement , but a SOBER and PRUDENT merchant engaged in a business enterprise. PRUDENCE rather than HEROISM I the ky to his actions ( THE PRUDENTIAL HERO). Robinson does not absorb his frightening experience on the island : his long years of living alone produce no moral and psychological change.The hero is a man who seeks comfort and safety rather than honour.
THE AVOIDANCE OF CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL REALITYROBINSON CRUSOE / LORD OF THE FLIES
It takes man out of the complexities of society onto a desert island in order to prove a strong social point : man is capable ,through education ,of progress. It is a book about how man can use his brains and hands to manipulate objects around him: not merely to survive , but positively to triumph.
Defoe, despite removing Robinson from everyday social reality, is concerned with creating verisimilitude , making us believe Robinson as a real man and the island as a real island / Reacting against the Romantic notion that man is basically noble if freed from the constraints of society, Golding 's idea is that man is a fallen creature: evil is inherent in man ; it is a terrifying force which he has to recognise and , therefore, control , if he wants to be saved from instinctive savagery
In the Romantic movement , THE CHILD represents a pre-Industrial Revolution innocence , a being based on an unlimited capacity for wonder and fancy . For Wordsworth the child might have INTUITIVE PERCEPTION of eternal truth.
THE ISLAND ENVIRONMENT
Defoe uses the isolated environment to uphold his current social philosophy:
Robinson is a hymn to individualism , an echo of the great confidence which the early 18th-century placed in the ECONOMIC MAN.
ROBINSON embodies the idea of ECONOMIC INDIVIDUALISM : Robinson pursues an utilitarian idea of human relationships as seen in his relationship with MAN FRIDAY ..
Robinson represents the single-minded pursuit of the associated tendencies of modern civilisation:
-economic individualism;
-social and intellectual freedom for the individual. / In LORD OF THE FLIES there is an intense awareness throughout the novel of man's physical surroundings . The island and the sea are described beautifully but NATURE cannot teach the boys anything in the Romantic tradition of NATURE as having a morally uplifting function.
It's clear that nature ( its beauty may be usefully contrasted with the increasing savagery on the island, has not connection with the human action. It is just indifferent to them and to their feelings.
MAN is alone in his quest for the knowledge of evil and his isolation is enforced by the relentless ebb and flow of the sea.
The CHILDREN 's dream of freedom from the restrictions of an adult society mirrors the civilised adults’ dream of freedom from the burdens of a civilised society.
In both cases the dream becomes a nightmare INDIVIDUALISM leads to REGRESSSION and BROTHERHOOD is impossible.
What is shown on the island is that man in such an isolated situation can't control either the environment or his inner desires , which are basically evil and beastly.