Robinsonades (draft)

Of all books that have an afterlife, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe has had a spectral success, from imitations to condemnations, from Swift’s Gulliver through to the Swiss Family Robinson lost in space. Since Marx gives Robinson a key place in the opening chapter of Capital Volume One, it would not do to leave him marooned on the shelf. In a free association game, we might start anywhere and still end up alone on the island. Instead, let us pay tribute to the widow Robinson leaves behind, stranded in London. Women are absent in the text, yet without them, no Robinson, no Prospero, no Will Rogers. The reproduction of myth serves as cover for a deeper reproduction.