
Contents
3 Robinson Crusoe and the Inception of Speech
Get access-
Published:April 2021
Cite
Abstract
Dwelling on the strange redundancies and formal excesses of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, this chapter traces in the novel’s paradoxically exorbitant consolidation of interiority the inception of the psychological novel. In the novel’s allegory, Crusoe is removed (by two shipwrecks) to his solitary island, where the social can be reconstituted and produced as a drama of one. The chapter explores several instances of the expropriating, anticipatory, self-grounding structure of character formation in the novel: the dream anticipating the appearance of Friday, whose language lessons are anticipated, in turn, by the speech of the parrot. Briefly considering J.M. Coetzee’s Foe, the chapter then turns to Jean-Claude Milner’s essay “Être-Seul,” which traces a paradoxical relation between the speaking subject and the social world of speech, one that rhymes with Defoe’s allegory of inception. The solitude of the speaking being, Milner suggests, is the ground of his speaking. Marooned by the very faculty of speech that would ostensibly allow us to address another or others, this solitude, however, portends a paradoxical form of community. We have it, paradoxically, in common, that we are each of us alone; Milner’s account of the solitude of speech thus illuminates the layered account of inception in Defoe.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
October 2022 | 2 |
October 2023 | 1 |
February 2024 | 2 |
March 2024 | 2 |
July 2024 | 4 |
August 2024 | 1 |
February 2025 | 1 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.