Configurations of Friday’s Body in the 1750s Robinsonade

Abstract

The English Robinsonade as a form thrived in the 1750s, but in a variant that revealed affinities not only with Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe but also Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and the imaginary voyage more broadly. A central position in this micro-tradition was occupied by Robert Paltock’s Peter Wilkins (1751), the popularity of which resulted in several fictions written in its wake, including Ralph Morris’s John Daniel (1751), William Bingfield by an anonymous author (1753), and Adolphus Bannac’s Crusoe Richard Davis (1756). These narratives explored both the Robinsonade conventions and aspects of the poetics of wonder to offer a variety of ‘Friday’ configurations, from hybrid animals to winged or feathered women. This article reads the aesthetic and ideological meanings behind these ‘strange surprizing’ character constructs.