Of Seas, Slaves, and Colonies in Robinson Crusoe Cartography, Strata, and Contrapuntal Reading

Abstract

This article uses travel literature to South America published in the 1710s and Daniel Defoe’s essays, journalism, and correspondence to reinterpret the presence and depiction of Africa and South America, the Atlantic and the South Seas in Robinson Crusoe. It unbinds geography from narrative and uncovers economic and colonial territories and networks that are not mapped or are kept hidden in the plot. This recovered geography intertwines territories which are diegetically constructed as discrete and it develops a line of narration that may support, complement, displace, or subvert the organization and function of space in the plot. This geo-critical approach allows a fresh contrapuntal reading of Robinson Crusoe that recalls the ties binding the novel to capitalism, slavery, and colonisation.