This project analyses the discourse of identity in the literatures and cultures of island nations. While colonialism is one common topic factoring into the respective constitution of identity, the experiences with colonialism and its legacies greatly differ across various regions. Caribbean colonial experiences frequently articulate tales of slavery, whereas Pacific cultures, which articulate different colonial relations and experiences, including neo-colonial dynamics from a rising American Empire and Chinese endeavours, as well as “worlding projects of colonization, militarization, and assimilation” to greater extent than the contemporary Caribbean (Huang and Lin 14). Based on such different challenges, the topic of decolonization factors into identity discourse in different ways.       

Furthermore, identity discourse frequently entails an inquiry into the past, regarding where one’s people came from, how land as a commodity was treated, and what was done to both the people as well as the land. Another common topic and narrative that transcends the personal, communal, and national lines is that of ecology and climate change. This imminent danger and political issue is greatly relevant to the creation and constitution of current archipelagic identities. However, many of these crises are practically invisible to the rest of the world (Huang and Lin 15). In these archipelagic areas and beyond, literature becomes an essential tool to raise awareness and facilitate a rethinking in which agency is shared to craft a rapid response to the nuclear as well as environmental threat. The negotiation of identity through a rediscovery of old traditions, values, and wisdom in daily activities also shows a possible impact on the environment. Indigenous cultures conceptualize the world differently than Western cultures and in a way that can aid in the fight against climate change by crafting a new relationship to the environment.     

Similarly, the identities and literatures of island peoples also play an important role in discourses such as the Blue Humanities. As a framework, the Blue Humanities discuss how humans engage with bodies of water in literary, cultural, historical, and theoretical productions, inspecting possible connections and ecologies (Mentz Preface). Notably, islanders often see the ocean as an extension of the land and a connection to each other. It is a point of connectivity as well as of mutual dependence and reciprocity across oceanic cultures. Closely related is the concept of “worlding” that was first introduced by Gayarti Spivak (Huang and Lin 2). Generally, the concept of worlding works to highlight regions as vibrant spaces of cultural production. Shared by a specific group of people with the intention to motivate change in the present, musings of the future become a “future imaginary” (Lewis 11). What makes these stories noticeably pertaining to a people is the grounding of these stories, no matter the temporal setting and backdrop, in a shared experience, a shared identity. Thus, this project charts recent developments in the identity discourse of island nations through the lens of the literatures and cultures of above mentioned regions.

Master of Arts, Anglophone Literatures, Cultures, and Media, Abschlussnote: 1,0