An imperialist’s garden of eden: Images of Oceania in R. M. Ballantyne’s The Coral Island

Pacific Geographies

article

Rebekka Wörner¹ 

[1] Höflinger Ring 26

关键词: Literature;    Imperialism;    Oceania;    R. M. Ballantyne;    The Coral Island;   

DOI  :  10.23791/553033

来源: Arbeitsgemeinschaft fuer Pazifische Studien e.V.

【 摘 要 】

This paper discusses how Oceania is depicted in an example of Victorian children’s literature, in Ballantyne’s TheCoral Island. The island is described as a garden of Eden, in which the protagonists of the novel can build a model colonialcivilisation. The idea of civilisation is also central to Ballantyne’s representation of Pacific Islanders, who are described withtypical racist stereotypes as childish and cruel, but whose inferiority is described as cultural rather than biological and whoshould be civilised and christianised.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND