Universität Leipzig: Robinson Crusoe - Adaptations in anglophone literature and popular culture of the 21st century

This research project, initiated in 2020 by the late Prof. Dr. Oliver von Knebel Doeberitz, explores adaptations of Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel "Robinson Crusoe". It is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Das Denkmal von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz auf dem Neuen Campus der Universität Leipzig

The project

The project explores literary, cinematic and digital adaptations of Robinson Crusoe in the 21st century.

Identity and Intersectionality

Research by the doctoral candidate Annika Scheel

dekoratives Bild einer Maske, die auf einem aufgeschlagenem Buch liegt

Identity and Intersectionality

My dissertation explores the complex processes of identity in the contemporary robinsonade from an intersectional perspective. I focus on the castaway protagonist(s) and their interactions with the island space as important factors in the identity representation of 21st-century audiences.

Globalisation, Digitalisation and Ecology

Research done by the doctoral candidate Ruprecht Tauchmann

Globalisation, Digitalisation and Ecology

Crusoe figures appear in many forms: ship-wrecked astronauts, castaway mariners or survivors of the apocalypse. Their stories are concerned with what it takes to sustain life in involuntary isolation, struggling against various socio-environmental pressures. This dissertation focuses primarily on science and posapocalyptic fiction after the ecological turn.