Travelling the sequestered Isle: Tasmania as penitentiary, laboratory and sanctuary

Clarke, Robert; Johnston, Anna

doi:10.1080/13645145.2015.1136091

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Remoteness and separateness can encourage associations with romantic seclusion or parochialism, with vibrant adventure or with being trapped, with hardy self-sufficiency or with vulnerability to disaster, with tourist paradise or with impoverished backwater (see also Baldacchino, 2008;Baldacchino, 2012a;Vannini, 2011;Grydehøj & Kelman, 2016b;Clarke & Johnston, 2016). It is precisely the boundedness of island place-and perhaps the assembly of discrete island places within archipelagic space-that makes islands special in particular but related ways to different peoples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sacred islands and island symbolism in Ancient and Imperial China: an exercise in decolonial island studies

Luo¹,

Grydehøj²

2017

ISJ

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This paper explores conceptions of islands in Ancient and Imperial China. From at least the 3rd Century BCE, mainland Chinese culture regarded islands as sacred, unapproachable fairylands, home to the elixir of immortality. This inspired a trend for voyages in search of mythological sacred islands as well as a landscape architecture trend for constructing artificial islands in imperial palace gardens. Over time, Taoism came to associate islands with the home of the gods, and Chinese Buddhism came to associate islands with dragon kings. As China's maritime activity increased, so, too, did fiction regarding islands of adventure. These conceptions of sacred islands and islands of adventure coexisted with the use of actual islands as places of political exile. By exploring island traditions in Chinese literature, this paper adds to our knowledge of how and why people throughout history have regarded islands and archipelagos as special. This paper also pursues a decolonial island studies by challenging some of the Eurocentric and imperialistic tendencies within the research field, which have led to a privileging of Western island metaphors and understandings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sacred islands and island symbolism in Ancient and Imperial China: an exercise in decolonial island studies

Luo¹,

Grydehøj²

2017

ISJ

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“…The aim is to contribute to ongoing discussions and debates concerning how islands of varying size are co-opted in order to obscure toxic colonial and postcolonial practices elsewhere. Notably, Clarke and Johnston (2016) have identified three tropes -penitentiary, laboratory, and sanctuary -applied to Tasmania since the first convict settlements in 1803. Their consideration of the smaller islands, such as Bruny Island, located off the coast of Tasmania emphasizes the use of such extra-peripheral spaces within the penal colony for quarantine and other forms of sequestration, as was also the case with the islands located off French Guiana.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toxic colonialism: Between sickness and sanctuary on Ilet la Mère, French Guiana

Fuggle¹

2022

ISJ

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Since the establishment of slave plantations in French Guiana during the 17th century, the small island of Ilet la Mère, located 11 km from Cayenne, has functioned as site of confinement, refuge, and experimentation. These roles continued during and after the creation of France’s largest penal colony across the territory (1852–1953). This article identifies different phases of Ilet la Mère’s colonial and postcolonial histories, and argues that the island plays an integral role in the ongoing perception and administration of French Guiana as colonial outpost and underexploited natural resource. This involves frequent misconceptions that French Guiana itself is an island, and the metonymic evocation of its islands, notably Devil’s Island (one of the Salvation Islands) and Cayenne, to denote the entire territory. Such perceptions, applied from outside the territory, alongside local engagement with lesser-known islands like Ilet la Mère, contribute to the creation of a ‘toxic island ecology’. Toxicity, defined as more than contagion and contamination, incorporates other practices and discourses which work to draw attention away from environmental and human rights abuses taking place on the mainland. The article concludes with reflection on the island’s current usage as a nature sanctuary where visitors can interact with overly tame squirrel monkeys.

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A Complicated Relationship

Stubbs

2024

Palgrave Studies in Literary Journalism

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Travelling the sequestered Isle: Tasmania as penitentiary, laboratory and sanctuary

Cited by 5 publications

References 12 publications

Sacred islands and island symbolism in Ancient and Imperial China: an exercise in decolonial island studies

Sacred islands and island symbolism in Ancient and Imperial China: an exercise in decolonial island studies

Toxic colonialism: Between sickness and sanctuary on Ilet la Mère, French Guiana

A Complicated Relationship

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