From Desert Island To Isolated Island: Island Images In Contemporary Robinsonade

Robinsonade comes from Defoe’s"Robinson Crusoe",which published in 1719,having attracted many writers to adapt and rewrite in the next three hundred years.Based on imagology and post-colonial theory,this paper mainly focuses on the island image in contemporary Robinsonades,trying to figures out its internal continuities and changes.The thesis has four chapters.The first chapter picks out the most influential Robinsonades since the 18^th century and tries to clarify the conception and definition of Robinsonade.The second chapter discusses the"islomania"of the western cultural tradition and further clarifies the continuities and changes of the imperial grammar of island narratives in contemporary Robinsonade.The island is an imagined space.By describing the island as a deserted but productive place and describing the native as two basic models of"Ariel"and"Caliban",the empire has completed the naturalization and legalization of colonial expansion.Based on the historical background,the third chapter clarifies the germination and development of the image of the isolated island in the contemporary Robinsonade.In the 18^th century,the ocean is seen as a channel which connects the deserted island and continent.However,in the contemporary Robinsonade,it becomes a device which isolates the island from the outside world,and gradually evolves into a metaphor for modern loneliness.The fourth chapter discusses the vital role played by islands in Western culture.From the perspectives of narrative and space,this part explores how the West has created these three basic island metaphors,"Paradise of Eden","Space of Others"and"Land of Introspection".Through the demonstration of the above chapters,this article tries to explain that although the Robinsonade and the island literature are both diachronic phenomenon,its inner texture still has continuity.