Robinsonian

English

Etymology

From Robinson +‎ -ian.

Adjective

Robinsonian (comparative more Robinsonian, superlative most Robinsonian)

1. Suggestive of the fictional Robinson Crusoe, a resourceful castaway on a desert island.

   Synonyms: Crusoean, Crusoesque, Robinsonesque

   • 1947, Y[itzhak] Ben Aharon, “Hagshamah”, in Listen, Gentile! The Story of a Life, London: Staples Press Limited, →OCLC, part 2 (The Rebel), page 86:

     Before the assembly had recovered from the stir caused by Chick’s farewell, a new wave of surprise swept the crowd: for Levy had given the word to Eleazar, popularly known as Crusoe on account of his Robinsonian escapades and physique.

   • 1959 August, Félix Martí Ibáñez, “Friends for the Road”, in Félix Martí Ibáñez, editor, International Record of Medicine: […], volume 172, number 8 (whole 2918), New York, N.Y.: MD Publications, Inc., page 183:

     In this sensitive book we can live step by step the author’s voluntary exile at Walden Pond, witness and feel the change of seasons in his Robinsonian isolation: the silver petals of the snow silently drifting to the ground, […]

   • 1982, Murray N[ewton] Rothbard, “A Crusoe Social Philosophy”, in The Ethics of Liberty, New York, N.Y.: New York University Press, published 2002, →ISBN, page 29:

     The bringing in of “Friday,” or of one or more other persons, after analysis of strictly Robinsonian isolation, then serves to show how the addition of other persons affects the discussion.

   • 2005, Rodrigo Fresán, translated by Natasha Wimmer, “The Invader”, in Kensington Gardens, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published 2006, →ISBN, page 162:

     […] Magic Alex (born Yannis Alexis Mardas, television repairman and genius in residence at Apple Electronics at the expense of the increasingly chaotic finances of his four bosses; a feverish swindler working on the creation of stereo surround-sound wallpaper and the construction of a floating communal house on the Greek island of Leslo so the Beatles could live there with their families; and who knows, maybe that Robinsonian project was abandoned after what happened to my parents at sea); […]

   • 2015, Andrea Wulf, “Art, Ecology and Nature: Ernst Haeckel and Humboldt”, in The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science, London: John Murray, published 2016, →ISBN, part V (New Worlds: Evolving Ideas), page 301:

     Once he had reached the tropics, he would leave the ship and begin his ‘Robinsonian project’.

   • 2016, Andrew Lambert, “The Magical Island of Daniel Defoe”, in Crusoe’s Island: A Rich and Curious History of Pirates, Castaways and Madness, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, page 52:

     There is no cave in any Selkirk narrative; he lived in a hut made of sticks and grass. Crusoe lived in a fortified cave, a residence suitable for a colonial overlord in savage lands, not an unarmed maroon expecting to be rescued by English sailors. Indeed the whole island has been reimagined by later visitors to satisfy Robinsonian dreams, without taking the trouble to separate fact and fiction.

   • 2018, Christopher Peterson, “Listing Toward Cosmocracy: The Limits of Hospitality”, in Monkey Trouble: The Scandal of Posthumanism, New York, N.Y.: Fordham University Press, →ISBN, pages 113–114:

     If democracy is sustained by an irremediable autoimmunitary conflict between freedom and equality, then the “perfect” democracy would require the complete erasure of alterity: a Robinsonian isolation whereby “equality” would be fully reconciled with an unconditional, sovereign freedom.

Related terms

• Heath Robinsonian