Rereading the Rites in "Friday, or, the Other Island" by Michel Tournier in the Context of Decolonization Cover Image

Relire les rites dans "Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique" de Michel Tournier dans le contexte de la décolonisation
Rereading the Rites in "Friday, or, the Other Island" by Michel Tournier in the Context of Decolonization

Author(s): Damian Masłowski
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Robinson Crusoe; Friday; colonialism; postcolonialism; rite; Algeria; decolonization

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the extraliterary function of the rites performed on Speranza Island by Robinson Crusoe — a colonizer — and by Friday who represents the Third World. Such investigation is relevant because Michel Tournier’s "Friday, or, The Other Island" is a postcolonial transvalorization of the classic Robinsonade, in which the author inverts the classic story first published in 1719. In Tournier’s case, owing to the repetitiveness and cyclicity of everyday activities, it is possible to read the rites as an allegoric image of crucial processes — such as language teaching or getting married — taking place in the colonial and postcolonial world of Algeria. The rites in Tournier’s novel are also considered to be a symbolic attempt to establish new relationships between French colonizers and African colonized society, who both witnessed the process of decolonization in the twentieth century.

  • Issue Year: 2014
  • Issue No: 9
  • Page Range: 200-209
  • Page Count: 10