Scarica Riassunti Robinson Crusoe e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Letteratura Inglese solo su Docsity! Robinson Crusoe pp.30-40 (ed. Penguin Classics, London, 2003) By Andrea Bassaseo, Alessia Maiorano, Gianluca Mancuso, Leila Manuel, Chiara Martina, Simone Mazzer, Angelica Russo, Marta Scavuzzo, Francesca Scivoli, Romina Pajtoni Narrator - There is a first person narrator, Robinson Crusoe. Action and Description - We can divide this passage into 3 parts: 1. The 4 years spent in Brazil; there are descriptions of how he manages to set up a plantation and to make it profitable and his agreement with other plantation owners to go to Guinea and trade slaves (50% action, 50% description) 2. The voyage and shipwreck; a highly descriptive passage about voyage by ship, with plenty of lingo taken from the world of mariners (25% action, 75% description) 3. The aftermath of the shipwreck; Robinson finds himself stranded on a desert island and describes what he does in order to survive (80% action, 20% description) Lists - We can find 2 lists: 1. Robinson lists all the goods that he wants to bring to Africa in order to buy slaves: “We had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little-looking glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets and the like.”(p.34 ed. Penguin Classics) Robinson doesn't plan on bringing money to trade with the slaves, he uses objects with no value such as beads and glass shards in order to fool them, because he considers them not intelligent at all. The objects he brings with him are taken from Columbus reports on his first encounters with indigenous people. Slave trade was a common practice in the 18th century even though it was illegal, but white plantation owners like Robinson did not care about ethics because slaves were considered like animals. The slave trade in now a focal point of the studies on the “Black Atlantic”, which focus on the effects of this horrible practise, as well as the cultural development that the African traditions brought in America. 2. After the shipwreck, when Robinson finds himself stranded, he takes note of everything that is left of the people that were on the ship with him, more precisely: “Three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows” (p.39 ed. Penguin Classics) Time - The action takes place 8 years after Robinson left Hull for London and 4 years after his first arrival in Brazil. The events of these 4 years are briefly summarised in a paragraph, whereas the navigation is described in detail. Space - During his 4 years in Brazil Robinson makes two voyages to Guinea. When he leaves together with other plantation owners for a third voyage towards Guinea he first passes Cape St. Augustino and starts his route to Guinea. Unfortunately then the ship is struck by a tempest near the isle of Fernand de Noronha and it has to go back to land because it is not able to continue the voyage. The ship makes a few stops: at first inbetween the river Amazon and Oronooko, then in the Carribe Islands and later on in the Barbados,
