Glimpses from the Archive: Crusoe in Children's and Young Adult Literature

The category of Literature for Children and Young Adults is essentially characterised by being not only entertaining, but also educational and pedagogically worthwhile for its target audience (Grenby 4). The protagonists of such books are often children or animals, and the stories usually follow the ‘home-away-home’-pattern, which means that the protagonist leaves the safety of home to undergo a variety of challenging adventures before finally returning home, being more mature than before (O’Malley, “Crusoe’s Children” 93-94).

The genre, which emerged around the mid-18th century (Grenby 4), has undergone great changes, mainly because the perception of the child has changed over time. While, in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, children used to be seen as sinful and not yet fully grown adults, the image of the child changed in the Romantic era (c. 1760 onwards; cf. Gavin 3, 5). The influence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau led to a new concept of the child as an emotional being, as yet uncorrupted by civilisation, who is closely connected to nature (O’ Malley “Robinsonade,” par. 9). This development is mirrored in the literature for young readers.

While early children’s books are very text-heavy, with occasional engravings throughout the book, they became, as time advanced, increasingly visual and colourful, with an often shorter and simplified text that shares the space on the page with illustrations. Moreover, the educational value of children’s books from the Romantic period and onwards manifests itself in an individualised manner of learning that is based on experimenting and reflection. This approach to learning is performed in and prompted by the text (O’Malley, “Crusoe’s Children” 87, 93).

When it comes to Robinson Crusoe, the first adaptations and rewritings for children also appeared towards the end of the 18th century. In these, the same developments toward more visual and textually abridged editions can be observed here. The versions of Defoe’s book specifically written for children are plentiful and belong to the genre of the Robinsonade, which is a separate (sub-)genre, dealing with narratives about islands and castaways. To this date, a large number of Robinson stories for children are realised in a variety of media, such as comics, video and board games, and TV shows. Another interesting observation concerning Robinsonades is the highlighting of specific themes of the story in order to cater to different groups of children.

It can, for instance, be observed that Robinsonades aimed at girls often focus on the theme of domesticity, whereas the ones written for boys concentrate on adventures and ideas of conquest (O’Malley “Robinsonade,” par. 8). This problematic gendering of the adaptations for the young, as well as the changes within the genre of children’s literature, show the importance of reflecting critically on such texts’ implicit assumptions. In addition, the more adaptations one reads, the more one comes to appreciate their great variety in terms of length and difficulty of text, of illustrations, topics and so on.

• Grenby, M. O., and Andrea Immel, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Children's Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.
• O’Malley, Andrew. “Crusoe’s Children: Robinson Crusoe and the Culture of Childhood in the Eighteenth Century.” The Child in British Literature. Edited by Adrienne E. Gavin. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Print.
• —. “Robinsonade.” The Literary Encyclopaedia. Published 11 March 2007. <https://www.litencyc.com/>. Accessed 28 June 2019. Web.

The history and different stages of childhood are also explored in:

• Ariès, Philippe. Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life. 1960. Trans. Robert Baldick. New York: Knopf, 1970.