Editing Robinson Crusoe (section)

=== Economics and civilization ===
{{Main|Robinson Crusoe economy}}
In [[classical economics|classical]], [[neoclassical economics|neoclassical]] and [[Austrian economics]], Crusoe is regularly used to illustrate the theory of production and choice in the absence of trade, money, and prices.<ref name="isbn0-393-95924-4">{{cite book |last=Varian |first=Hal R. |title=Intermediate microeconomics: A modern approach |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-393-95924-6}}</ref> Crusoe must allocate effort between production and leisure and must choose between alternative production possibilities to meet his needs. The arrival of Friday is then used to illustrate the possibility of trade and the gains that result.

{{Quote box
 |quote = One day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand.
 |source = Defoe's ''Robinson Crusoe'', 1719
 |width  = 30%
 }}

The work has been variously read as an allegory for the development of civilization; as a manifesto of economic individualism; and as an expression of European colonial desires. Significantly, it also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious convictions.  Critic M.E. Novak supports the connection between the religious and economic themes within ''Robinson Crusoe'', citing Defoe's religious ideology as the influence for his portrayal of Crusoe's economic ideals, and his support of the individual. Novak cites [[Ian Watt]]'s extensive research<ref>{{cite book |first=Ian |last=Watt |author-link=Ian Watt |title=Myths of Modern Individualism: Faust, Don Quixote, Don Juan, Robinson Crusoe}}{{full citation needed|date=September 2020}}</ref> which explores the impact that several Romantic Era novels had against economic individualism, and the reversal of those ideals that takes place within ''Robinson Crusoe''.<ref name=Novak-1961>{{cite journal |last=Novak |first=Maximillian E. |date=Summer 1961 |title=Robinson Crusoe's "original sin" |series=Restoration and Eighteenth Century |journal=SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=19–29 |jstor=449302 |doi=10.2307/449302}}</ref>

In Tess Lewis's review, "The heroes we deserve", of Ian Watt's article, she furthers Watt's argument with a development on Defoe's intention as an author, "to use individualism to signify nonconformity in religion and the admirable qualities of self-reliance".<ref name=Lewis-1997/>{{rp|page=678}} This further supports the belief that Defoe used aspects of spiritual autobiography to introduce the benefits of individualism to a not entirely convinced religious community.<ref name=Lewis-1997>{{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Tess |year=1997 |editor-last=Watt |editor-first=Ian |editor-link=Ian Watt |title=The heroes we deserve |jstor=3851909 |journal=The Hudson Review |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=675–680 |doi=10.2307/3851909}}</ref> J. Paul Hunter has written extensively on the subject of ''Robinson Crusoe'' as apparent spiritual autobiography, tracing the influence of Defoe's Puritan ideology through Crusoe's narrative, and his acknowledgement of human imperfection in pursuit of meaningful spiritual engagements – the cycle of "repentance [and] deliverance".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Halewood |first=William H. |date=1 February 1969 |title=The Reluctant Pilgrim: Defoe's emblematic method and quest for form in Robinson Crusoe. J.Paul Hunter, Defoe, and spiritual autobiography. G.A. Starr |journal=Modern Philology |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=274–278 |doi=10.1086/390091}}</ref>

This spiritual pattern and its episodic nature, as well as the re-discovery of earlier female novelists, have kept ''Robinson Crusoe'' from being classified as a novel, let alone the [[First novel in English|first novel written in English]] – despite the blurbs on some book covers. Early critics, such as [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], admired it, saying that the footprint scene in ''Crusoe'' was one of the four greatest in English literature and most unforgettable; more prosaically, Wesley Vernon has seen the origins of [[forensic podiatry]] in this episode.<ref name=west>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=West |year=1998 |title=Daniel Defoe: The life and strange, surprising adventures |place=New York |publisher=Carroll & Graf |isbn=978-0-7867-0557-3}}</ref> It has inspired a new genre, the ''[[Robinsonade]]'', as works such as [[Johann David Wyss]]' ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]'' (1812) adapt its premise and has provoked modern [[Postcolonial literature|postcolonial]] responses, including [[J. M. Coetzee]]'s ''[[Foe (Coetzee novel)|Foe]]'' (1986) and [[Michel Tournier]]'s ''[[Vendredi ou les Limbes du Pacifique]]'' (in English, ''Friday, or, The Other Island'') (1967).  Two sequels followed: Defoe's ''[[The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719) and his ''Serious reflections during the life and surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe: with his Vision of the angelick world'' (1720). [[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' (1726) is in part a parody of Defoe's adventure novel.