ABSTRACT
At first glance it may seem difficult to make the transition from the distant tropical island, the world of sea adventure and trade to the host of eighteenth-century novels wr itten in the female fir st person and dealing with problems of women’s status and sexuality. These novels appear more as confessions of sexual adventures and have, on the surface, little to do with the literature of travel and exploration. However, by keeping the ‘history’ of the novel in mind (Watt; Davis, 1983) the leap from Robinson Crusoe (1719) to Pamela (1740-1) or Clarissa (1748-9) marks the transition of the novel into the more domestic and homely domain. This is not to say that excitement and adventure are eschewed, but that they are transferred into the sexual terrain, and by making the female protagonist and the female narrator central to the discourse the status and position of women and sexuality become increasingly the main concerns of the novel. The nature of adventure in the novel changes. Again, the shift to the domestic does not keep the novel confined within f amiliar structures: the realm of the domestic is extended to show how even familiar ity can be rendered strange, exciting and dangerous. The female protagonist and narrator come to occupy a central position, as it is within the domain of the sexual that these changes take place.
