Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Empire Islands: Castaways, Cannibals, and Fantasies of Conquest

Empire Islands: Castaways, Cannibals, and Fantasies of Conquest

Weaver-Hightower, Rebecca

Paperback

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0816648638
ISBN13: 9780816648634
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: Apr 24 2007
Pages: 312
Weight: 0.89
Height: 0.74 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.92
Language: English
Through a detailed unpacking of the castaway genre's appeal in English literature, Empire Islands forwards our understanding of the sociopsychology of British Empire. Rebecca Weaver-Hightower argues convincingly that by helping generations of readers to make sense of-and perhaps feel better about-imperial aggression, the castaway story in effect enabled the expansion and maintenance of European empire.Empire Islands asks why so many colonial authors chose islands as the setting for their stories of imperial adventure and why so many postcolonial writers write back to those island castaway narratives. Drawing on insightful readings of works from Thomas More's Utopia to Caribbean novels like George Lamming's Water with Berries, from canonical works such as Robinson Crusoe and The Tempest to the lesser-known A Narrative of the Life and Astonishing Adventures of John Daniel by Ralph Morris, Weaver-Hightower examines themes of cannibalism, piracy, monstrosity, imperial aggression, and the concept of going native. Ending with analysis of contemporary film and the role of the United States in global neoimperialism, Weaver-Hightower exposes how island narratives continue not only to describe but to justify colonialism.Rebecca Weaver-Hightower is assistant professor of English and postcolonial studies at the University of North Dakota.

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