At this opening reception for the exhibit Other Crusoes, Other Islands: Mapping a Complex Legacy, please join us for a panel discussion about the complicated legacy of The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, with curators, Juli McLoone, Angie Oehrli, and Sigrid Anderson Cordell, and Clement Hawes from the Departments of English and History. Learn about how the exhibit took shape, as well as how critics today view the complex legacy of the novel. There were also be an opportunity for Q&A and to browse the exhibit. Light refreshments will be provided.

Other Crusoes, Other Islands: Mapping a Complex Legacy interrogates the troubled legacy of Daniel Defoe’s seminal English novel, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner, first published in 1719. It also explores how creators have pushed back against the colonialist, hyper-masculine, and racist ethos of the text by using the castaway narrative to explore identity, otherness, and the role of gendered and racialized ideas in constructing the self.