The Female American
Furthermore, the narrative articulates an American female identity that is undeniably bound up in imperialism and colonialism. Unca is a product of British colonization in North America, and her relationship with the indigenous inhabitants of the island is one of manipulation and trickery through which she reinforces what she perceives as her natural superiority over them. This uneven relationship is exemplified in Unca's erasure of their indigenous religious practices, her coerced conversation of the priests and their people to Christianity, her installation as their queen, and her ultimate destruction of their religious "idols." Unca's success on the island is secured in much the same way that European colonists throughout the so-called "New World" were able to gain control of vast swaths of land inhabited by indigenous people: through manipulation, domination, and cultural and ideological violence.
Several important digital humanities projects have emerged around Robinson Crusoe and its publication history, including "Digital Crusoe," "Visualizing Crusoe," "Pirating Texts," and "Crusoe@300." I think another useful project would place The Female American within the context of the Robinson Crusoe and the full body of literary Robinsonades. Such a resources could use text mining and data visualizations to compare and illustrate the various locations, character types, and narrative tropes that appear across each of the the texts. It might also attempt to create and layer maps of the adventures depicted in each of the text, producing an image of the collective geographical world of the Robinsonades. This resource would underscore The Female American's distinctiveness in the canon of Robinsonades, but would also invite exploration of its resonances with other texts in the canon.