The Making of the”Other” in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe: The Birth of Master-Slave RelationshipJ

Abstract

This research paper discusses the Making of the “Other” in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, or the birth of Slave-Master relationship in post-colonialist perspective. Defoe is among the Western imperialist writers whose colonial discourse enhances ideologies of the superiority of the Western race, religion and power. Defoë’s Robinson Crusoe asserts the “backwardness” of the “Other” as “savage”, brute and uncivilized through the image of “Friday”. The novel has also venerated Christianity to enlighten the “Other” who cast away from European civilization and modernity. To unveil the disruptive process of power and hegemony, the intellectuals have to remedy some of its ills and raise cultural awareness among the people.