viz.

Image Credit: wikipedia.org

I was surprised to discover that Daniel Defoe’s famous eighteenth-century castaway narrative has been filmed several times in the twentieth century, and that at least four of these films can be watched in their entirety on the web. This visual archive will appeal to instructors who want to introduce students to the text, and to viewers already familiar with Robinson Crusoe. The four films are interesting for their modernizations of Defoe’s tale, and their interpretation of particular passages. The most striking discrepancy between the four films pertains to scenes featuring Robinson Crusoe and “Friday”: the native he instructs in English and Christianity. The four twentieth century films adapt these lessons very differently, and reflect an ambivalent tribute to Defoe’s conception of pedagogy and cultural exchange.