Islands in Literature

The irresistible and eternal attraction of an island has surfaced in literature as a varied range of tropes : the domain of strange fantastic creatures, flora and fauna, an 'Other' since the ancient times; epitome of the charm of the distant in the romantic era;real geographical spaces since the era of sea-voyaging, discovery and re-mapping of islands; with the emergence of imperialism new meanings arising from the new imperial discourse; in the postcolonial era the islanders themselves 'writing back' to the mainstream canon. Today we have a great harvest of island literature arising out of various discourses, including postcolonial, postimperial, feminist, ecological, cultural,etc. in addition to unique work/s on island arising from individual perceptions - philosophical, imaginative, emotional, nostalgic, etc. A study of island literature across ages and lands thus can introduce us not only to a vast spectrum of ideas, approaches, contemplation, ideation, discourses and counter discourses.but also to a wide network of inter- references, in which authors across lands and ages-from Homer to Shakespeare, Defoe-Swift-Ballantyneto Golding-Coetzee, Virginia Woolf to Margaret Atwood,Rhys-Walcottto Eco-Saramago - seem to reach out to one another and shake hands. A basic perceptual difference between the outsider and the insider as they behold their encircled space has contributed togreat counterpoints:compulsive confinement; challenge of survival; thrill of discovery; satisfaction of possession, love, claustrophobia, desire to escape, desire to return and repossess, etc.- whichwriters have brought to correspond to a wide range of contrapuntal discourses. It has been envisioned as the exclusive space for the artist, thewoman, as time's backwater, as the magic realm of the surreal/hyperreal fantasia, etc.Island has come to semiotize a wide range of tropesand significations.It appears that if island is a signifier, then the signified are endless.Indeed, the island paradigm seems to be like a magic crystal reflecting innumerable strands and shades (of meanings), depending on the way you looked at it. The subject involves an area of oceanic vastness, starting from the coast of the ancient ages right into the ports of the modern and postmodern times. The area has been ever spreading and vibrant texts have been sprawling all the time, sprouting newer branches,accumulating newer layers of meaning, and striking newer depths of perception and insight.
This book, an outcome of the UGC Emeritus Fellowship, has been an attempt to scoop up a few of these infinite 'infinities of islands' as they are presented and projected in texts across ages and spaces, starting from Valmiki and Homer and continuing into the postmodern islands of Jose Saramago and Umberto Eco.