John Locke, Ecological Imperialism, and the Narration of the Land in Robinson Crusoe —A Tale of the Anthropocene

IF 0.2 3区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Terence N. Bowers
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Abstract: The influence of John Locke's political thought on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has often been discussed. Most studies have focused on how the novel speaks to political crises in England, especially those surrounding the Glorious Revolution, which have traditionally been seen as forming the key context for understanding Locke's Two Treatises of Government . But recent scholarship has shown that the Two Treatises also addressed the colonial context in America and provided the intellectual platform that justified British expansion in the New World. Though studies of Robinson Crusoe have for some time analyzed the novel in the context of colonialism, Locke has not figured much in such analyses. This essay argues, however, that Locke's key connection to Robinson Crusoe is his view of America and empire and that Defoe's story of survival in the wild builds on and powerfully reinforces Locke's colonial ideology, which is grounded in a vision of how human beings should (and should not relate) to the earth. This vision is deeply anthropocentric and matches what the environmental historian Donald Worster calls "the 'imperial' view of nature." The vision of empire shared by Locke and Defoe is thus based on and inseparable from a quest for ecological dominion that is global in scope. In the latter part of the essay, I discuss the astounding popularity of the Crusoe story and its status as myth and argue that it constitutes a version of what Carolyn Merchant terms the "Recovery Narrative," which forms "perhaps the most important mythology that humans have developed to make sense of their relationship to the earth." Given its influence and enduring popularity, I suggest that we see Robinson Crusoe as a key text and driver of the Anthropocene—the geological epoch in which human activities have altered the planet's land surfaces, oceans, and biosphere and produced the environmental crises that we face today.
约翰·洛克、生态帝国主义与《鲁滨逊漂流记——人类世的故事》中的土地叙述
摘要:洛克的政治思想对笛福的《鲁滨逊漂流记》的影响是人们经常讨论的问题。大多数研究都集中在这部小说是如何讲述英国的政治危机的,尤其是那些围绕着光荣革命的政治危机,这些危机传统上被认为是理解洛克《政府论》的关键背景。但最近的学术研究表明,《政府论》也谈到了美国的殖民背景,并为英国在新大陆的扩张提供了合理的智力平台。虽然对《鲁滨逊漂流记》的研究一直把这部小说放在殖民主义的背景下进行分析,但洛克在这种分析中并没有发挥多大作用。然而,本文认为,洛克与鲁滨逊漂流记的关键联系是他对美国和帝国的看法,笛福在野外生存的故事建立在并有力地强化了洛克的殖民意识形态,这种意识形态建立在人类应该(或不应该)如何与地球联系的愿景之上。这种观点是深刻的人类中心主义,与环境历史学家唐纳德·沃斯特(Donald Worster)所说的“‘帝国’自然观”相吻合。因此,洛克和笛福共同的帝国愿景是建立在对全球范围内的生态统治的追求的基础上,并且与之分不开。在文章的后半部分,我讨论了克鲁索故事令人震惊的受欢迎程度及其作为神话的地位,并认为它构成了卡罗琳·钱特所说的“恢复叙事”的一个版本,它形成了“也许是人类发展起来的最重要的神话,以理解他们与地球的关系。”鉴于《鲁滨逊漂流记》的影响力和经久不衰的受欢迎程度,我建议我们将其视为人类世的关键文本和驱动力。在这个地质时代,人类活动改变了地球的陆地表面、海洋和生物圈,并造成了我们今天面临的环境危机。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.30
自引率
0.00%
发文量
20
期刊介绍: Founded in 1903, Studies in Philology addresses scholars in a wide range of disciplines, though traditionally its strength has been English Medieval and Renaissance studies. SIP publishes articles on British literature before 1900 and on relations between British literature and works in the Classical, Romance, and Germanic Languages.
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