Children's literature, popular culture and Robinson Crusoe
By: Andrew O'Malley
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
ISBN-13: 9780230272705
Subjects: Books and reading; Castaways in literature; Children's literature, English; History and criticism; Robinson Crusoe (Fictitious character); History
Description: This study of the long and varied afterlife of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, primarily in the overlapping arenas of children's and popular culture, offers new insights into not only the continued popularity and relevance of Crusoe's story, but into how modern conceptions of childhood have been shaped by nostalgia and by ideas of 'the popular.' Because it enjoyed such tremendous success as a pedagogical work for children and as a source for children's and popular entertainments, Robinson Crusoe provides a unique case study in the development of our ideas of childhood and the points of intersection between children's and popular cultures. Drawing on a wide range of adaptations and remediations, including children's abridgements, print 'robinsonades, ' chapbooks, popular songs, pantomimes, toys, games, and various consumer items, this book offers a fresh consideration of the place Crusoe has occupied in our culture for almost three centuries.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Robinson Crusoe, the child, and the people; title: Performing Crusoe and becoming Crusoes: the pedagogical uses of Robinson Crusoe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; title: Crusoe comes home: Robinsonades and children's editions of Robinson Crusoe; title: Poaching on Crusoe's island: popular reading and chapbook editions of Robinson Crusoe; title: Animal spirits are everything!: Robinson Crusoe pantomimes and the child of nostalgia; title: An island of toys: childhood and Robinson Crusoe consumer goods.