Romance, the Robinsonade, and the Cultivation of Adolescent Female Desire in Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens

This chapter argues that Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens, a satirical riposte to the Robinsonade genre, draws on the broad tradition of codifying the desert island as a space for romantic interludes and posits the island as a distinctly experimental site for girls to navigate gendered behaviours, in order that they might question conservative social mores concerning female sexuality. It also argues for a critical perspective that reclaims women’s connection to nature by reconsidering the cultural construction of “woman” as one that is potentially transgressive within the narrative, and it schools young readers in finding pleasure in their own bodily, sexual desires.

Between Communitas and Pantheism

This chapter argues that the openness and egalitarianism of scientific discourse to be found in Terry Pratchett’s Nation functions as an alternative to the hierarchical structures imposed by colonialism. In addition, the chapter discusses the ways in which Pratchett attributes liminal potential to religious beliefs and posits the suggestion that pantheism is the most appropriate religious belief system within the social-scientific framework of his model post-colonial society. Finally, the chapter argues that Nation highlights the importance for young readers of addressing and critically reflecting on the issue of their own belief systems, in order to manage the difficulties of 21st-century living.

Call it Courage and the Survival of the Imperial Robinsonade

This chapter argues that Armstrong Sperry’s Call it Courage cannot be considered a revisionist work of Robinsonade fiction (as it is sometimes interpreted) and that discussions of it in terms of postcolonial or feminist theoretical frameworks are limited precisely because of the text’s spurious ethnography. It also argue that Call it Courage is a particularly important example of a work of Robinsonade fiction whose didactic merit, ideological significance, and perceived value for young readers has changed over time. Ultimately, the chapter argues that Sperry’s narrative is a regenerated imperial Robinsonade in the guise of an indigenous Pacific Island tale, and that there is much to be suspicious of in the novel’s continued placement on North American school curricula.

Introduction

This chapter reconsiders literary didacticism by demonstrating the ways in which the Robinsonade novel for young readers has evolved from the anxious moralizing of earlier examples into a more socially instructive vehicle for engaging young readers with contemporary socio-political and cultural issues, such as gender politics and global post-colonial concerns. Unlike much scholarly material on the Robinsonade genre, which tends to concentrate on texts produced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the focus of this chapter is on post-1900 works of Robinsonade fiction. The chapter also embraces a much wider definition of what has historically been understood within the Robinsonade as an ‘island’ or ‘islanded’ location.

Shifting Perspectives in Two Mid-Twentieth-Century Robinsonades

This chapter contends that Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins and Michel Tournier’s Friday and Robinson are works of didactic fiction which pose to young readers questions of historical, political, and cultural concern and, moreover, which allow for readers to develop their own critical skills in response to such concerns. It also argue that, through the highlighting of reasoned debate, forced shifts in perspective, and a playful exposure of received social laws, both Island of the Blue Dolphins and Friday and Robinson are examples of educational literature par excellence, precisely because they engender within the reader the ability to critically analyse, interpret, and independently draw conclusions from the texts’ events.

‘What a Crusoe crowd we shall make!’

This chapter considers William Payne’s 1912 novel Three Boys in Antarctica in light of the Robinsonade genre - in particular as an example of a text which relocates the tropical desert-island setting to the icy world of the Antarctic. It argues that, while the story does contain some traditional elements of the Robinsonade narrative, the Antarctic setting has a significant impact on the text’s underlying didactics. The chapter also argues for the importance of spatial considerations within the Robinsonade genre and offers a reconsideration of the traditional topography of the genre, underlining the significant relationship between the space of the text and the characters who inhabit it. Instead of celebrating the adventuring spirit of the traditional Robinsonades, the chapter concludes that Payne’s tale is a cautionary one, and one which seeks to undo the political heritage of the Robinsonade genre at large.

Navigating Nationhood, Gender, and the Robinsonade in The Dreams of Myfanwy

This chapter argues that The Dreams of Myfanwy, written by Welsh writer Moelona and concerned with the experiences of the female author writing in a minority language, negotiates an intriguing relationship with, and offers perspective on, the patriarchal, imperial ideologies traditionally associated with imitations of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. The chapter contends that the didactic impulse of this particular Robinsonade is to inculcate within its young readers a sense of Welsh national and cultural difference; like many other popular adventure novels written in Welsh from the 1910s to the 1930s, Moelona’s novel is specifically designed to entice readers and to instil a sense of pride in their cultural and linguistic distinctiveness. The chapter concludes by arguing that this text is a teaching tool that embodies the tension between creativity and didacticism, and which ultimately allows its young readers to navigate an understanding of what it meant to be a young Welsh adolescent in early 20th-century Britain.

Borrowing (from) Crusoe

This chapter considers the Robinsonade within the framework of the children’s collection of Cork Public Library in the post-revolutionary period of the early twentieth century. It examines how the repeated purchasing of copies of Robinson Crusoe for circulation to Free State children may be interpreted within the context of the Gaelic Revivalist movement. Furthermore, two specific texts are considered: T.C. Bridges’ Martin Crusoe: A Boy’s Adventure on Wizard Island (1920), a self-conscious Robinsonade, and a 1936 account of an Irish missionary’s experiences in Africa, African Adventure, by Father James O’Mahoney. The chapter argues that both texts exhibit characteristic Robinsonade qualities (the colonialist impulses of which are framed by ennobling justifications), and, ultimately, that the colonial novel was in many ways compatible with post-colonial Ireland’s nationalist ideology.