Mapping Robinson Crusoe

The Mapping Robinson Crusoe Project was created for the final project of the English 4400: Violent Voyages course at the University of Lethbridge (Fall 2025). The creator, Jocelyn McKnight, came to the idea when thinking about movement in Robinson Crusoe and other GIS/digital mapping projects. In particular, the Diogenet project, which mapped the movements of Greek philosophers, was a major inspiration. Unfortunately, the Diogenet project is no longer active. The focus of this project is on the relationship between fictional and factual texts. As the project evolved, it turned toward an existing debate in Crusoe studies about the texts that may have inspired Robinson Crusoe. Mapping became a way to enter that debate and use computational tools to provide additional evidence.