The image of Robinson Crusoe in the aspect of the problem of “one’s own — alien”

Abstract

One of the topical problems of modern literary criticism is the study of dichotomy “one’s own — alien”. This dichotomy is a representation of a different culture, language and mentality of one people in the literature of another people. The article analyzes the evolution of the Robinson Crusoe’s image in the Russian worldview within the framework of the imagological problem. The novel “The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by the English writer Daniel Defoe belongs to the most widely read works of world literature. Interest in it does not fade, both from readers and from experts in various subject areas. Despite the formal simplicity of this text’s architectonics, Defoe’s novel discovered a new artistic paradigm. The Robinson story has long gone beyond the boundaries of the adventure genre. The number of questions about survival, exploitation of resources, social and political interaction with other human communities does not decrease, and the search for answers is becoming global and broad. Various authors around the world view these issues through the lens of Defoe’s novel and his hero. Using the method of imagological analysis proposed by modern scholars (A. A. Kozlova, L. P. Ivanova, etc.), the author analyzes the process of perceiving Robinson Crusoe’s image in Russia in 18th–21st centuries, and demonstrates that in the 18th century, when Defoe’s novel was translated into Russian, Robinson was an “alien” name. Then this proper name became nationally precedent and formed as a concept of linguistic consciousness and culture. The author explores the factors that influenced the development of Robinson’s image, through which it became “one’s own” in Russian culture. Among other factors, there are the creation and development of universal image indicators in a concentrated form (symbolization), embodiment in other forms of art (semiotization), the development of additional prototype consciousness (connotonimization), integration into the system of heroes of Russian writers (interpolation).