Robinson Crusoe, startled by the sight of a human footprint, embodied a new homo economicus—overcoming his fear in order to instill fear; threatened by God, nature, and other human beings yet shaping, even in disaster, what seems to be the whole universe to his ends. Defoe’s stories may be about a man surviving on an island or a woman surviving in the city; they may bristle with whole populations fleeing disease or accumulating fortunes; they may turn upon common human pettiness or grand imperial ideas. But whatever his topics, Defoe puts into brilliant imaginative form an extraordinary number of what we know are still our social contradictions. Whether we consider his portrayals of the commodification of the imagination, the isolated self, sexual power, the knotting together of religion and capitalism, the family, science, economics, technology, or racial ideas—these and many other topics make talking about Defoe interesting at any time, anywhere.

But on this occasion to discuss Defoe we shall also celebrate the career of Professor Maximillian E. Novak. The new homo economicus in Defoe’s works found one of its most important contemporary interpreters in Max Novak. From his first monographs on Defoe to his recent biography, Professor Novak has continually shaped and enlivened our understanding of one of the greatest of European novelists.

This conference will also coincide with the publication of Teaching Robinson Crusoe, a volume edited by Maximillian Novak and Carl Fisher. One conference session will be devoted to that nove: talks on Robinson Crusoe will be followed by a panel in which several contributors to the Novak and Fisher volume will join to consider issues involved in teaching the work.
 
 

9:30 a.m. • coffee

10:00 a.m.

Peter H. Reill, UCLA
Welcome

Robert M. Maniquis, UCLA
Introduction

Session 1
Moderated by Felicity Nussbaum, UCLA

Stuart Sherman, Fordham University
    “One Universal Act of Solitude”: Benefactions and Obstructions in the Novels

Roxann Wheeler, Ohio State University
    Powerful Affections: Labors of Love in Defoe’s Novels

12:30 p.m. • lunch

2:00 p.m.

Session 2
Moderated by Helen Deutsch, UCLA

Jayne E. Lewis, UCLA
    Defoe’s Ghosts

John Bender, Stanford University
    The Apparitional Novel as Modern Myth

J. Paul Hunter, University of Chicago
    Footprints in Poetry

5:00 p.m. • reception

Saturday, June 1

9:30 a.m. • coffee

10:00 a.m.

Session 3
Moderated by Anne K. Mellor, UCLA

Laura Brown, Cornell University
    Defoe’s “Black Prince”: Elitism, Capitalism, and Cultural Difference

Robert M. Maniquis, UCLA
    French Variations on Robinson Crusoe; or, How Friday Became Sunday, White, and a Woman

12:00 p.m. • noon

1:30 p.m.

Session 4
Moderated by Alan Roper, UCLA

Robert Folkenflik, University of California, Irvine
    Robinson Crusoe and the Semiotic Crisis of the Early Eighteenth Century

Michael Seidel, Columbia University
    “Robinson Trousseau”: Joyce’s Defoe

Panel Discussion: Teaching Robinson Crusoe
Moderated by Carl Fisher, California State University, Long Beach

Geoffrey Sill, Rutgers University
John Barberet, University of Central Florida
Roxanne Kent-Drury, Northern Kentucky University
Manuel Schonhorn, Southern Illinois University
Matthew Wickman, Brigham Young University

Maximillian E. Novak, UCLA
    Concluding Remarks

Registration deadline:
    May 24, 2002.

Please be aware that space at the Clark is limited and that registration closes when capacity is reached.

Fees: UC faculty & staff: $15; students with id: no charge; others: $25.

Fees include the cost of lunches and other refreshments.

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