Hello again,
this blog post is... yes you guessed it, activity 1 of lesson/ week 6 Hooray! <Insert Sarcastic laughter here>
All jokes aside, this lesson was about landscape; specifically about how it relates to narrative, visual arts and symbolism via archetypes (think typical gloomy cave, mysterious forest, stretching desert, etc. in a story)
So for this group activity we chose to discuss about the island - what this archetype symbolizes and can represent. The question is as follows:
"Pick a landscape and brainstorm in your group relevant definitions/associations that are in the following categories:
1)Description (aesthetics)
2) Politics (e.g. gender, race, cultural)
3) History (e.g. national, cultural, etc)
4) Current affairs
5) Fairy tales/ myths/ tales
6) Biography (people who live there. What are they like?)
7) Metaphors/ imagery
8) Associated themes
9) Film/ books
10) Art History
11) Emotional resonance
12) Symbols
I will be going through each aspect one by one. Of important note is that during the lesson, we misinterpreted the question (we thought it was about a specific place and chose Pulau Ubin). As such, most of this information will be from personal research and understanding outside of the collective effort.
1) Description
An island is a piece of land cut off from the main land/ continent. It is thus surrounded on all sides by water, and very often this is ocean. Because of this isolated state, the island is depicted as containing lots of lush exotic flora and fauna mostly or completely untouched by man. We picture an island as a place where few people live and often are more in tune with nature than their city dwelling counterparts.
2) Politics
This is a really huge genre to tackle but this is what I came up with. Depending on the type of people on the island, they are either governed by a local official if there are pockets of settlements or by one mayor if the people are under one community. Sometimes it is both where one overall figure governs the entire population but has delegated responsibility for each area/district/group to a local official.
Reading reports on the pacific islands, I came to realize there are also politics not just within the island but from island to island when there are 2 or more islands together sharing the same seas.
Very often, there are many islands situated close to each other. This coupled with the fact that there are many micro and macro-communities in each island creates very often a weak consciousness of nationhood and collective identity but myriads of different cultures, traditions, languages and practices.
It is also worth noting, that when we picture an island, we picture a rural place with tribal peoples and chiefs, and not “modern society” structures. I feel that what I wrote applies to both modern and tribal island societies but in varying degrees of course.
Last but not least there is also politics in nature which in contrast to human politics, is sharp and to the point, simple but ruthless where hierarchy plays chief and sole importance where one eats another who in turn after death is eaten. It can be summed up I feel by Disney’s famous circle of life which simplifies and solidifies this concept in the real circle of life in nature.
3) History
When we think of history of islands, I cannot help but think about its geological state. There is a shroud of mystery over the origins of islands and how they cut off by leagues of waters from main lands. As for people, I feel it can be summed up by the idea of travelling nomads and tribes such as the Maori people in real life. One day long ago they migrated from their homeland to new islands in search of new identities and hope. Perhaps their old homes were ravaged by war or disease and thus they left all that behind – physically as well as mentally.
4) Current affairs
I feel this relates to the part about politics where there is little consciousness of a national identity. Politics and relations between and within the islands shift constantly.
I want to also touch briefly on urbanisation and the dwindling of nature as a current affair too. With man’s excessive need and desire to create, expand and conquer, nature is being destroyed and what is destroyed cannot be again. For this, I think of the plight of the dodo birds who were decimated by the arrival of humans and their usual behaviour of doing and taking without thought of consequence.
5) Fairy tales/ myths/ tales
I’m sure there are many myths out there about islands in general and specific islands. However, one common aspect of all such fairy tales and myths about islands draw from symbolic characteristics of what an island is – that of mystery, unknown, wild, majestic, magical and distant. Some myths I can recall from the top of my head are the aspidochelone (giant sea creatures like turtles or whales that carried islands on their backs), the sunken city (and island) of Atlantis, and Avalon from Arthurian legend. All these stories play with the idea of the mysteriousness and sacredness of the island concept.
6) Biography
It is admittedly stereotype, but when I think of the island, I think of native tribal people with their body and face paints and spears. This I feel is clearly a product of mass media stereotypes of the island concept.
7) Metaphors/ imagery
I can think of one “No man is an island.” This metaphor plays with the concept of an island as unmoving and isolated. This is in contrast then with a human being who can move and should not be isolated. The metaphor came about from a sermon by the seventeenth-century English author John Donne. What he is implying is that man cannot be self-sufficient and independent like the ecosystem of an island. Human beings are creatures of social habit and cannot function independently the way islands do. It is alright to and important to help others and rely on others at times.
8) Associated themes
For themes, the first one I would like to write about is nature vs man. As said previously, islands and their wildlife face destruction from urbanisation if humans do not control themselves.
Another binary theme would be freedom vs trapped. The island represents a desire to escape modernity and the pressures of society. At the same time, for people who stay on the island, it might have a reversed effect of feeling trapped; the desire to go out and explore beyond the “great unknown” which is the surrounding sea.
9) Film/ books
For films and books I would like to just list them out. The first list is for books:
· J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. The islands of Valinor and the island of Numenor are critical aspects of his world’s history and formation.
· C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. My personal favourite book by the way, it depicts a journey from known lands to unknown lands filled with temptation and mystery.
· Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. Not a book I am particularly familiar with but certainly one of the classics about the titular character getting stranded on a mysterious island. I would go as far as saying that this book was what cemented the island archetype as a place of mystery, unknown and danger.
· Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. A coming-of-age story about a boy who goes off to find a great treasure.
· Scott O'Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins. Based on a true story of Juana Maria, a Nicoleño Native American who was left alone for 18 years on San Nicolas Island during the 19th century.
· Johann David Wyss’ The Swiss Family Robinson. Inspired by Robinson Crusoe, the author uses the same name for his characters. It is a bout a Swiss family who becomes shipwrecked in the East Indies.
Now for films:
· Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Moana. Loosely based on Polynesian legends and histories.
· Lilo and Stitch. A little destructive alien crashes his ship in Hawaii.
· Jurassic Park series. An island attraction with dinosaurs in a contemporary setting.
10) Art History
Fittingly to the fact that islands are mysterious and that ancient island peoples and their histories have long been forgotten and destroyed, not much is left. Noteworthy surviving art would be the Moai Statues on Easter Island and wall and rock art of the Australian Aboriginals.
11) Emotional resonance
With the established symbolisms of the island (mystery, unknown, wild and untamed nature), islands then evoke feelings of adventure and foreboding. Their geological status as lands cut off from the rest habour feelings of loneliness, isolation but at the same time peace and tranquility.
12) Symbols
Last but not least, symbols. Islands being completely surrounded by sea are also surrounded by beaches. I feel that anything that washes ashore can be symbols for an island. In particular, the seashell is an object that symbolizes an island. Another top contender would be the palm tree that represents nature as a whole and the beach.
References:
“Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Dodo - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/story/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-the-dodo%C2%A0/lQKCJWtqLgvEIA.
Firth, Stewart. “Instability in the Pacific Islands: A Status Report.” Lowy Institute, Lowy Institute, 4 June 2018, www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/instability-pacific-islands-status-report.
“History of the Pacific Islands.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Pacific_Islands.
“No Man Is an Island.” The Idioms, www.theidioms.com/no-man-is-an-island/.