The Crusoe condition: making within limits and the critical possibilities of fiction
Rossi, Cat (2017) The Crusoe condition: making within limits and the critical possibilities of fiction. The Journal of Modern Craft, 10 (1). ISSN 1749-6780
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Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) is a perennially popular narrative, repeatedly retold in Robinsonades from science fiction to Hollywood blockbusters. Despite substantial academic interest in the novel, Robinson Crusoe has received little attention in craft or design history. This is surprising given the centrality of making to the novel, which could offer a useful tool for interpreting contemporary craft and design practice. This paper therefore offers a twofold making-based exploration of the novel: the first half explores what kind of maker Robinson Crusoe was, and what his making can tell us about craft. The second mobilizes the making in Robinson Crusoe to examine a selection of works by designers from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although diverse, their designs can be all read as Robinsonades: defined as necessity-driven and narrative-led making within multiple limits that I define as the Crusoe Condition.
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