"Robinson Crusoe" in the colonial culture of the colonial influence of cultura [5]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-06-16编辑:anne点击率:16604
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关键词:"Robinson Crusoe"colonialismcolonial discoursecolonial culture《鲁滨逊漂流记》殖民主义殖民话语文化殖民
ies of the southeastern American mainland. Black slaves on huge plantations cultivated them. The misery and suffering of the plantation slaves inspired the American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe, to write the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a touching story that intensified anti-slavery sentiment in the North. Slavery in the South was one of the reasons that led to the American Civil War of 1861. In 1865 the South lost the War and Slavery was abolished in the United States.
In Robinson Crusoe, Robinson was the spokesman of Defoe as well as those merchants and capitalists who supported slave trade and slavery system. Although there were no furious words as irritating as in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the evil practice of claiming “the other’s” human right and liberty was obvious.
B. The Superior Race and the Inferior Race
If the colonial discourse of master and slave was on account of economic factor, the white mythology of the superior race and the other peoples as the inferior races was the basic context that Western scholars often constructed. Especially when British from a small island country rose sharply and became an Empire, such accepted discourse was dominated their culture. Besides, English scholar Elleke Boehmer had ever pointed out that: “British are a nation that inherently identified the rest of the world as ‘the other’.” (陈兵, 2006: 72) Geographically, Britain was featured as a long and narrow island surrounded by the sea. Yet in their mind, provided that those races were belong to non-whites whose images were likely to suffer twisted as “the other” to stress the civilization and just of British people.
In Robinson Crusoe, like many other colonial literature, the whites were described as the “the superior race” and cliché as the just and kind people; by contrast, “the other”—the blacks along the African coast and the American Indies were identified as “the inferior race” and stereotyped as the barbarous creature with primitive lifestyle, uncivilized behavior, awkward and ugly way of dancing and the most inhumane convention of eating man’s flesh.
1. The Just and Kind Whites
In the story of Robinson’s adventuring life, he met four captains and an English widow,all of who represented the civilized and just westerners.
The first captain he met was the father of one of his friends, who served him to go to sea for the first time. The first trial was a failure: their ship met terrible storm and sank, though they were saved. Despite he was at a great loss, he still turned to Robinson with a very grave and concerned tone like his father to persuade him never to go to sea anymore. The second master he fell acquainted with was the master of a ship in London. This captain was an honest and plain dealing man. Although this captain died soon, they built a strict friendship. With the captain's integrity, honesty and hospital, he learned a lot and set up for a trader. Later, the captain’s widow continued to support him as kind as the captain, even if she was in unfavorable conditions. The third kind captain delivered Robinson from the sea when he escaped out of slavery. He was not only kind to save but also generous delivered goods for him without taking anything from him, for he believed that, ‘I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself, and it may one timeorother be my lot to be taken up in the same condition; besides,' said he, ' when I carry you to the Brazils, so great that a way from yo
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