Robinsonade / desert island fiction

Robinsonade (desert island fiction) is the German term used for adventure stories related in some way to Robinson Crusoe. The term itself derives from Daniel Defoe's "The Life and Strange and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1719). Characteristic of this popular genre is the motif of exile under conditions resembling those on a remote, uncivilised island, hence the English term "desert island fiction". The stereotype has, however, been known in world literature in some form since the 13th century ("Kudrun", 1220, long before that in Lucian) and was particularly in demand in the Age of Discovery. The earliest Robinsonades in the narrower sense of the term are believed to be Henry Neville's satire "The Isle of Pines" (1668) and, in Germany, the "Continuatio" (the 6th book), of Grimmelshausen's "Simplicissimus" (1669). Since the 19th century, the Robinsonade has branched out into three main subgenres: the utopian or dystopian political novel, the desert island fiction adventure story and the didactic story aimed at children and adolescents.