Freitags Widerstand und die Unterwanderung von Crusoes Vorherrschaft

Abstract:
Despite the general view of Robinson Crusoe as a manifesto for colonial empowerment this paper in the German language shows that the text in fact exposes the paradigmatic self-affirming colonial subject as inherently instable. It does so not only by the initial perforation of Crusoe’s name, but also by failing “pro-imperialist apology” – according to Edward Said’s idea of contrapuntal read¬ing – aimed at legitimiz¬ing Crusoe’s supremacy over “his” island, and his power over the main non-Western protagonists, Xury and Friday. Both these parallel cases of subjugation are ridden by almost absurd logical, or economic contradic¬tions exposing the futility at the heart of their mechanics. Also, the presentation of Crusoe’s superiority by means of the con¬struction of reli¬gious alterity is inconsistent as traces of hybridization within the Chris¬tian creed show. Moreover Crusoe’s will to establish his Western language usage as superior backfires when Creo¬lization enters the protagonist’s own discourse, and his self-aggrandizing declaration of being master of his island is subverted by antagonistic elements, which he – unsuccessfully – tries to exclude from the realm of hu¬mankind – by unconvincingly de¬picting their cannibal eating hab¬its.

Further, “anti-imperialist resistance” according to Said becomes obvious within the text when the visual contrast between Crusoe and colonized peoples – one of the markers of alterity – collapses as Friday acquires phenotypical Western traits and Crusoe devel-ops non-Western features. But it is Friday who symbolically resists colonial power most potently. Far from being only the obedient servant desired by his master he stubbornly refuses to speak Eng-lish adequately, thus exposing Crusoe’s deficiency of authority. But most of all, after years of subjugation, he stages a revolt not only against Crusoe, but – in the name of all colonized peoples – against Western colonists.

Wolfgang Streit unterrichtet in München.

Streit publiziert u.a. zu Michel Foucault, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, Franz Kafka, Francis Ford Coppola und Francis Bacon.

Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind:
Irland-Forschung; Postkolonialismus-Forschung; Neostruktu¬ralismus.

Zuletzt erschienen von ihm:
Einführung in die Postkolonialismus-Forschung. Theorien, Methoden und Praxis in den Geisteswissenschaften. Nor¬derstedt: BoD (2014).
Joyce/Foucault. Sexual Confessions. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press (2005).