The Thematic Changes In British Desert Island Literature

Desert island literature has always been playing an important role in the history of British literature. The reason is that these literary works on the theme of "desert island", to some extent, reflect the society, culture, economy and religion at that time, which provoke readers ponder. From sixteenth-century Tempest by Shakespeare to twentieth-century Lord of the Flies by Golding, the unfailing of British desert island literature is related to its continuity and creativity. Although both the scholars from abroad and at home have analyzed desert island literature from various perspectives, few of them study its thematic changes from the perspective of reception aesthetics.Reception aesthetics was born in Federal Germany in the half of 1960s, which is based on phenomenology and hermeneutic. Compared with the traditional literary theories that focus on author or text, reception aesthetics mainly focuses on the relationship between reader and text, which provides a new perspective for the literary criticism.In 18th century, Robinson Crusoe is one of the most classic works in the history of British desert island literature, which is a landmark of this kind of literary genre. Thus, the thesis emphasizes on the thematic changes of British desert island literature from the 18th to 20th century. And the thesis chooses four representatives of British desert island literature from the 18tn century to 20th century:Robinson Crusoe, the Coral Island, the Blue Lagoon and Lord of the Flies. The scholars from abroad or at home mainly analyze it from the perspectives of colonialism, post-colonialism, ecocriticism and feminism. However, this thesis tries to study British desert island literature from a whole new perspective-reception aesthetic for having a better understanding of its thematic changes.The thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one will give a brief introduction to desert island literature, literature review to the four novels, reception aesthetics and the significance and layout of the thesis. The main body and the innovation of the thesis are chapter two to chapter five, which mainly discuss how the theme of desert island literature changes with the development of the era from the aspects of changes of fighting and the protagonist. Chapter two is about Robinson Crusoe and its theme-human and destiny. Chapter three explains the Coral Island and its theme-human and nature. Chapter four mainly focuses on the Blue Lagoon and its theme-human and forever young. Chapter five aims to discuss Lord of the Flies and its theme-human and human nature. Chapter six is the conclusion of the thesis based on above analysis:the thematic changes of British desert island literature meet readers’ needs from different eras and achieve the prospective communication between readers and works.