Introduction - insularity, islands and insular spaces

Abstract

The metaphorical concept of 'insularity' reverberates with discourses surrounding geographical islands as well as the connotations and symbolic values of 'the island' in the Western cultural imaginary, which all contribute to the figurative notion of 'the insular'. Real islands, however, or rather their inhabitants, can often be seen to strive to emancipate themselves from 'insular' characteristics, such as detachment and isolation: the meaning of insularity, then, is derived from a reality which itself often seeks to escape the qualities associated with it. This entails one of several aspects of deconstructive tendencies pertaining to the metaphor of 'insularity'. The term is an intriguing example of a dialectical concept, which - in spite of its implications of 'independence', even 'autarchy' and 'self-containment' - is obviously dependent on the construction of various pairs of opposites, for example: earth and water, land and sea, continental and insular, big and small, enclosed and open, close and remote, connected and secluded. Even the definition of a geographical island is relative and contested, its interpretations, moreover, are manifold and - despite the seemingly clear boundaries of islands - not easily delineated. Approaching insularity, then, means analysing the ambivalence of notions such as seclusion, separation, self-enclosure, smallness and detachment when applied to real islands as well as in their discursive use in different contexts - spatial, aesthetic, social and political to name but a few.