“Energy of Words”
Language and Dominance in Robinson Crusoe and in Foe
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35699/2317-2096.2021.26194Keywords:
Robinson Crusoe, Foe, Language, Formal realism, ColonialismAbstract
This paper aims at investigating the role of language in Robinson Crusoe and in Foe. In the latter, relations of dominance are undermined by the near absence of verbal communication between Cruso and Friday, who is speechless, allied with the failure of the character and narrator, Susan Barton, in weaving a plot to her story; in the former, the character and narrator skillfully manipulates verbal signs so as to attribute a new meaning to the desert island, thus taking control over it, similarly to the dominion he will exercise over its inhabitants, mainly Friday. Therefore, in this paper, I aim at connecting some dots between the descriptive and denotative use of language, proper to the formal realism of Robinson Crusoe, and the colonial mission. Likewise, in putting referential language itself at stake, Foe offers an original and challenging alternative to the possibilities of opposing colonial heritage and its narrative forms.
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