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Poaching on Crusoe's Island

Popular Reading and Chapbook Editions of Robinson Crusoe

Bibliographic Data

ID11121372
AuthorsAndrew O'Malley, Andrew O’Malley (0000-0001-7725-4082, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume35
Issue2
Pages18-38
Publication date2011-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEighteenth-Century Life (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0098-2601 • E-ISSN: 1086-3192
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00982601-1214054
OpenAlexW4229932224
LanguageEN
Citations received1

In this essay, the author argues that chapbook editions of Robinson Crusoe should be viewed not simply as impoverished abridgments of Defoe's novel, but as striking examples of the popular “appropriation” of an elite text by plebeian readers. The ruthless editorial decisions required to reduce a 400-page novel to a 24-page chapbook with woodcut illustrations may appear haphazard at times, omitting such vital scenes as Crusoe's discovery of the footprint, for instance, but actually express the preferences, interests, and reading practices of common readers. Popular reading often challenges and confounds the aesthetic and narrative expectations of experienced readers. Similarly, popular chapbook editions of Robinson Crusoe contest, dispute, and sometimes reject the ideological underpinnings of their elite source text

Appropriation · Art · CONTEST · Elite · Epistemology · Ideology · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Reading (process · Sociology · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · Philosophy · Travel Writing and Literature

  • Transatlantic Abridgment and the Unstable Economics of Robinson Crusoe

    Emily Gowen•American Literature•2021

Citations per year0.2
Citation span2021 - 2021 (1)
Highly citedNo

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Ethnos_APP • Open Source Project • MIT License • Frontend v2.0.0 • Privacy and Cookies • API Documentation: api.ethnos.app/docs • API Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17049435 • Frontend Source Code: GitHub • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17050053 • cruz.rio.br • Expectantes Misericordiae