Abstract:

            This paper examines the complex ways through which Jack Gold’s 1975 film Man Friday reimagines the classic story of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Far from merely being a tale of shipwreck and survival, Robinson Crusoe has long symbolized colonial authority, modern individualism and cultural dominance. Man Friday challenges these issues by telling the story from an alternate vantage point, flipping the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, and naming the story after the slave, rather than the master. The film thus offers a stringent critique of racism, slavery, colonialism, exposing the limitations of Crusoe’s civilized values and upholding the more communitarian culture of Friday’s tribe. Yet, the film struggles with stereotypes and fails to fully imagine Friday’s world evading Eurocentric influence. Man Friday reveals the constant conflict between cultures and identities, implicating that true understanding and coexistence between disparities remain difficult. The film is a counter-narrative to the dominant Crusoe story, opening up a dialogic, interdisciplinary space to rethink power, culture and representation.