Islands are one of the most enduringly productive motives in Western literature. Islands can be lost paradises or penal colonies, places of exotic allure or gothic nightmares, of utopian promise or of untouched nature. You may find pirate treasure, lairs of supervillains, or the last surviving dinosaurs.

In the seminar, try to understand what makes island spaces such an appealing setting for literary texts and look at a few examples from the rich tradition of island texts in modern anglophone literature. We will pay particular attention to the notion of islands as laboratories – small, isolated pockets of space, where social, psychological, or biological processes can be observed, and new forms of social and political organization are be tried out.

*The seminar will take place biweekly on Fridays, 10 am – 2 pm, room t.b.a.*

Please buy and read:
Kanul Basu: Racists (ISBN 978-0753821503).
H.G. Wells: The Island of Doctor Moreau (preferably Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0141441023)
Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (make sure to get an unabridged version, preferably Oxford World Classics, ISBN 978-0-19-955397-6)