THE MANY FACES OF DANIEL DEFOE'S ROBINSON CRUSOE: EXAMINING THE CRUSOE MYTH IN FILM AND ON TELEVISION A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by SOPHIA NIKOLEISHVILI Dr. Haskell Hinnant, Dissertation Supervisor DECEMBER 2007 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled THE MANY FACES OF DANIEL DEFOE’S ROBINSON CRUSOE: EXAMINING THE CRUSOE MYTH IN FILM AND ON TELEVISION presented by Sophia Nikoleishvili, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Haskell Hinnant Professor George Justice Professor Devoney Looser Professor Catherine Parke Professor Patricia Crown ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of my adviser, Dr. Haskell Hinnant, to whom I would like to express the deepest gratitude. His continual guidance and persistent help have been greatly appreciated. I would also like to thank the members of my committee, Dr. Catherine Parke, Dr. George Justice, Dr. Devoney Looser, and Dr. Patricia Crown for their direction, support, and patience, and for their confidence in me. Their recommendations and suggestions have been invaluable. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................................ii INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1 Novel to Film Problematic....................................................................................20 2 Transferring Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe into Film......................................43 3 A Voice of Friday: Jack Gold's Man Friday..........................................................88 4 Simplifying the Crusoe Myth: Adapting Robinson Crusoe for Children.............105 5 Romanticizing the Crusoe Myth..........................................................................127 6 Science Fiction Robinsonade...............................................................................147 7 Twenty-First Century Crusoes and Their Audiences...........................................164 8 Making the Crusoe story a "Reality" Story..........................................................202 CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................225 APPENDIX..........................................................................................................................229 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................................................................232 VITA.....................................................................................................................................245 iii INTRODUCTION “We do not usually think of Robinson Crusoe as a novel. Defoe’s first full-length work of fiction seems to fall more naturally into place with Faust, Don Juan, and Don Quixote, the great myths of our civilization.” Ian Watt. “Robinson Crusoe as a Myth.” When my friends and students hear that my dissertation studies the cinematic versions of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, their immediate reply is that they are familiar with the Crusoe story. When I ask whether they have read the book, however, most admit that they have not. Yet, all of them know who Robinson Crusoe is. Everyone recalls that he is a castaway, shipwrecked and marooned on a deserted island for many years. As for the rest of the story, each has a different version of it. Some remember Man Friday – “Crusoe’s faithful slave;” others mention cannibals and Crusoe’s crusade with them; and there are those who think of Friday as Crusoe’s female companion, surprised to find out that in the book, the Friday figure is, in fact, a man, not a woman. It is obvious that what my friends and students know about Robinson Crusoe comes from the fame Crusoe’s character has maintained throughout years. Their recollections are based not on the original version of Defoe’s novel, but rather on its numerous abridgments and editions, or on various cinematic adaptations and retelling of the Crusoe story. Robinson Crusoe has undoubtedly attained the status of a myth, and continues to live outside its original context, time and culture. Scholars frequently refer to “the Crusoe myth,” (Spaas 98), “the Crusoe phenomenon” (James 1). Margaret Drabble states that 1 Defoe “created one of the most familiar and resonant myths of modern literature” (qtd. in Spaas 98); Ian Watt claims that Robinson Crusoe is “almost universally known, almost universally thought of as at least half real,” and that it “cannot be refused the status of myth” (“Robinson Crusoe as a Myth” 313); French critic Arlette Bouloumie writes that Crusoe is “a mythological character through the mere fact that he has become autonomous” (qtd. in Spaas 98). To Michel Tournier, one of the best known French novelists, and an author of Friday and Robinson – a rewriting of Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe – the Crusoe myth is “one of the most topical and vital that we possess,” one that in fact “possesses us” (183). “Never has a myth been more living” than that of Robinson Crusoe, Tournier declares in a 1996 interview. Indeed, the story of Robinson Crusoe has been rediscovered, retold and reinterpreted through generations. “The strength and fascination of the story, encapsulated by Defoe but not restricted to his telling, is that it escapes all ideological strictures and continues to suggest alternative readings and prompt rewritings from alternative vantage points,” Brian Stimpson asserts in the preface to Robinson Crusoe. Myths and Metamorphoses (ix). Certainly, since its publication in 1719, Robinson Crusoe has gone through hundreds of versions. Michael Seidel claims that “no single book in the history of Western literature has spawned more editions, translations, imitations, continuations, and sequels than Crusoe” (8). Pat Rogers’ study lists “at least 200 English editions, including abridged texts; 110 translations; 115 revisions and adaptations; and 277 imitations” by 1900 (11). The Crusoe story has also been rendered in poems, an opera by Offenbach, an ice-show by Tom Arnold and countless British pantomime, the earliest example being Robinson Crusoe, or Harlequin Friday, performed at the Drury Lane Theater in 1781. 2 That the Crusoe myth extends beyond literature is obvious from numerous non- literary materials, ranging from pottery and paper dolls to cartoons and stamps. Ian Watt mentions a restaurant tree, called “Robinson,” which was opened up by an enterprising French industrialist in 1848 near Paris. Also in France, “un Robinson” has become a popular term for a large umbrella (“Robinson Crusoe as a Myth” 312). Robinson Crusoe has generated many new stories, usually referred to as “Robinsonades.” Robinsonade, to define it broadly, “repeats the themes of Robinson Crusoe; usually it incorporates or adapts specific physical aspects of Crusoe’s experience and is an obvious rewriting of the Crusoe story. Other times, it shares ideas or narrative style” (Fisher 130). Thus, Robinson Crusoe adaptors have metamorphosed Defoe’s castaway into a dog, a woman, a child, a family, a doctor, and an idyllic lover, among many others. Rogers’ study catalogs a great number of imitations of Defoe’s novel. An incomplete list of popular Robinsonades includes the following works: The Voyages, Dangerous Adventures, and Imminent Escapes of Captain Richard Falconer (1720), John Barnard’s Ashton Memorial (1725), Johann Rudolph Wyss’s The Swiss family Robinson (1812-27), Captain Marryat’s Masterman Ready (1843), The Dog Crusoe (1860), The Catholic Crusoe (1862), Six Hundred Robinson Crusoes (1877). Serious revisions of Robinson Crusoe continue to be made. The most recent permutations of the Crusoe story include Derek Walcott’s Castaway poems, Muriel Spark’s Robinson (1958), Michel Tournier’s Friday and Robinson (1972) and J. M. Coetzee’s Foe (1986). My dissertation focuses on the cinematic versions of the Crusoe story. Starting from the early 1900s, a significant number of films use the Crusoe myth as the text for an entire movie, or as a set piece within a film. Undying fascination with a mythic figure of a castaway led numerous filmmakers to rewrite, reinvent, and rework the Robinson Crusoe 3 story. Some of the cinematic adaptations of Defoe's first novel include the following works: Otis Turner’s Robinson Crusoe (1913), George Marion's American Robinson Crusoe (1916), Robert Leonard's Robinson Crusoe (1917), Edward Cline's Little Robinson Crusoe (1924), Bryan Foy's Robinson Crusoe (1924), Walter Lantz's animated Robinson Crusoe (1925), M. Wetherel's Robinson Crusoe (1927), Edward Sutherland's Mr. Robinson Crusoe (1932), Frank Moser's Robinson Crusoe (1933), Luis Bunuel's Robinson Crusoe (1952), George Miller/Rod Hardy Robinson Crusoe (1996). There are Mexican, Russian, French, Italian, Brazilian, and Dutch filmic adaptations of Defoe's novel as well. As Carl Fisher notes, “there are few places without a specific national Robinson” (131). In addition to these “literal” adaptations, there have also been features, serials and television series using the Crusoe narrative one way or another. Some of these works completely rewrite Defoe's novel. Many versions alter the physical elements of the