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In Robinson Crusoe

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In Robinson Crusoe HELENA MARIA ROENNAU LEMOS The dark side is the bright side, in Robinson Crusoe A TRANSDISCIPLINARY READING OF DANIEL DEFOE’S NOVEL PORTO ALEGRE 2006 Livros Grátis http://www.livrosgratis.com.br Milhares de livros grátis para download. UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL INSTITUTO DE LETRAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO ÁREA ESTUDOS DE LITERATURA ESPECIALIDADE LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA LINHA DE PESQUISA LITERATURA, IMAGINÁRIO E HISTÓRIA The dark side is the bright side, in Robinson Crusoe A TRANSDISCIPLINARY READING OF DANIEL DEFOE’S NOVEL Dissertação submetida à Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Letras na ênfase Literaturas de Língua Inglesa Mestranda: Helena Maria Roennau Lemos Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Sandra Sirangelo Maggio PORTO ALEGRE 2006 LEMOS, Helena Maria Roennau The dark side is the bright side, in Robinson Crusoe – a transdisciplinary reading of Daniel Defoe’s novel Porto Alegre: UFRGS, Instituto de Letras, 2006. 192 p. Dissertação (Mestrado - Programa de Pós-graduação em Letras) Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. 1. Literatura inglesa. 2. Crítica literária. 3. Daniel Defoe. 4. Robinson Crusoe. 5. Transdisciplinaridade. To my grandchildren, still coming, to whom I intend to tell many beautiful stories. AKNOWLEDGEMENTS My love to my children Marcelo and Patrícia, Mariana and Natalino, and Marília, for their permanent encouragement: I am thankful for the gift of them in my life. My deep gratitude especially to Liba, for her patience and sincere interest in my work. My very special thanks to my tutor Sandra Maggio, who has guided me throughout darkness. My appreciation to Luciana Kaross, for helpful suggestions. Many thanks also to my colleagues Larissa, Jacqueline, Paulo, Tati, Werner, Mônica, Márcia, Ivana and Loiva for their suggestions and material contributions. My appreciation to Ignês Pletsch for her valuable gifts. My affection to Pedro A. Cabral, for the beautiful drawing, and to Luíza, for providing me with so many books. And my everlasting indebtedness to the authors whose thoughts, presented here, have been leading and supporting my studies and my steps. (...) there will come an Age, when the Minds of Men shall be more flexible, when the Prejudices of their Fathers shall have no Place, and when the Rules of Vertue and Religion justly recommended, shall be more gratefully accepted than they may be now, that our Children may rise up in Judgment against their fathers, and one Generation be edified by the same Teaching, which another Generation had despised. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe, Preface to Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1720) RESUMO Este estudo propõe uma leitura do século 21 de Robinson Crusoe, do escritor inglês Daniel Defoe, buscando identificar as razões que fazem a história do náufrago que vive numa ilha deserta por 28 anos permanecer excepcionalmente popular no mundo ocidental por três séculos. A leitura é um exercício prático do pensamento complexo, que constitui um dos três pilares da transdisciplinaridade, definido pelo pensador francês Edgar Morin. Esse enfoque consiste na identificação de padrões e inter-relações entre elementos internos do texto e externos a ele. O pensamento complexo conecta o conhecimento empírico/lógico/racional à sabedoria simbólica/mitológica/mágica. O estudo tem início com um retrospecto da carreira de Robinson Crusoe, considerando os textos fundadores que podem ter influenciado sua criação, e os inúmeros textos imitativos que se seguiram à sua publicação, originando um subgênero literário, das Robinsonadas. Uma síntese da biografia de Defoe ilustra o cenário de um mundo europeu de mudanças científicas, políticas e sociais radicais. O contexto e a fortuna crítica do autor são colocados lado a lado com a contribuição de estudos de filosofia da ciência, psicologia analítica, mitologia, antropologia e religião, na investigação do imaginário inscrito no romance. O capítulo quatro apresenta minha leitura transdisciplinar de Robinson Crusoe, destinada a demonstrar que a popularidade duradoura do romance é devida a seu poder de transmitir significados velados, conectados com elementos constitutivos do imaginário do mundo ocidental. Palavras-chave: náufrago, ilha, pensamento complexo, transdisciplinaridade, imaginário. ABSTRACT This study proposes a twenty-first-century reading of Robinson Crusoe, by British writer Daniel Defoe, aiming to identify the reasons why the story of the castaway who lives on an uninhabited island for 28 years has remained remarkably popular in the Western world for almost three centuries. The reading is a drill on Complex Thinking, as defined by French epistemologist Edgar Morin, one of the pillars of Transdisciplinarity. This approach consists of the identification of patterns and interrelationships among elements inside the text and elements external to it, in the light of a number of disciplines involved in the study. Complex Thinking connects empirical/logical/rational knowledge to symbolic/mythological/magical wisdom. The study starts with a review of the career of the book, considering the founding texts which might have influenced the creation of Robinson Crusoe, and the myriad of mimetic texts that followed its publication, giving birth to a literary subgenre, the Robinsonade. A glance at the life of Defoe is also offered, so as to illustrate the context of a European world of radical scientific, political and social changes. Contexts and the critical heritage of the work are put together with symbolic data that prove relevant for the research on the imaginary inscribed in the novel. Chapter three acknowledges the aid of a number of studies in the fields of philosophy of science, analytical psychology, mythology, anthropology and religion, which enabled me to interrelate diverse levels of reading. Chapter four offers my transdisciplinary reading of Robinson Crusoe, in which I endeavor to demonstrate that the continued popularity of the novel derives from its capacity to convey concealed meanings connected with elements constitutive of the Imaginary of the Western world. Key-words: castaway, island, Complex Thinking, Transdisciplinarity, Imaginary LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1. Aspects of knowledge on reality in the contemporary era…… 79 TABLE 2. Epistemic changes in the Western world……………………… 81 TABLE 3. The paradigmatic disjunction……………………………………. 86 TABLE 4. The “uniduality” of the brain.…………………………………….. 89 TABLE 5. Complex Thinking………………………………………………… 92 TABLE 6. A comparison between disciplinary knowledge and transdisciplinary knowledge……………………………………... 95 TABLE 7. Example of Analogical thinking x logical thinking……………... 98 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………….…… 9 1 FROM HISTORY TO THE SPHERE OF MYTH………………….………... 18 1.1 The work: a novelty from a changed world…………………………….…… 19 1.2 Old imagery in a new way of thinking……………………………….………. 30 1.3 Desert island stuff: the Robinsonades……………………………….……… 36 1.4 The author: writer-for-hire, but a success………………………….……….. 41 2 THREE CENTURIES OF COMMENTS AND STUDIES…………….……. 54 2.1 Envy and admiration: the 18th Century……………………………….……... 55 2.2 Applause of great writers: the 19th Century…………………………….…… 57 2.3 Studies and interpretations: the 20th century…………………………….…. 61 2.3.1 Homo economicus in the 1950s………………………………………….….. 63 2.3.2 The religious tradition in the 1960s…………………………………….……. 66 2.3.3 Several ideologies, in the 1970s……………………………………….……. 68 2.3.4 From the 1980s onwards: specific aspects…………………………….…... 70 2.4 Criticism in rewrites………………………………….………………………… 73 3 AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD……………………………….... 78 3.1 Transdisciplinarity and complexity……………………………………….….. 81 3.1.1 Disciplines are united, crossed, surpassed……………………………….... 81 3.1.2 Vicious circles become virtuous cycles……………………………………... 85 3.1.3 Mind and nature as a unity………………………………………………….... 88 3.1.4 The double thinking: mythos-logos………………………………………….. 90 3.2 The disciplines of the imaginary……………………………………………... 95 3.2.1 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell………………………………………….... 95 3.2.2 A bridge between abstract and concrete…………………………...………. 99 4 THE PARABLE OF DISCONNECTEDNESS…………………………….... 103 4.1 Water: the emotions…………………………………………………………… 108 4.2 Earth: the matter………………………………………………………………. 119 4.3 Air: the intellect……………………………………………………………..….. 128 4.4 Fire: the spirit…………………………………………………………………... 137 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….… 153 NOTES…………………………………………………………………………. 163 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………… 174 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………. 187 9 INTRODUCTION The present thesis, which proposes a twenty-first century reading of Robinson Crusoe, by eighteenth-century British writer Daniel Defoe, brings transdisciplinarity into literary criticism. This contemporary approach requires the conjugation of two readings of the novel: the first one, highlighting the principal aspects of the work’s critical heritage, is focused as the logical/rational view, which is crossed with an analogical/symbolical view. This dialogue, as presented in Chapter 3, is mandatory for Complex Thinking, one of the pillars of Transdisciplinarity, which enables us to find the interconnections inside and among systems. The methodology used in the work is supported by Romanian quantum physicist Basarab Nicolescu and by one of the leading figures in the Western contemporary thought, French sociologist, philosopher and epistemologist Edgar Morin. The critical heritage – historical, social, political data researched in the principal
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