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Cultural History of Islands

  • Beate M. W. Ratter
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Abstract

This chapter deals with sun islands, ur-islands and I-lands, presenting a cultural history of island dreams, exotic paradises and social-political utopias. A wealth of stereotypical island attributions or topoi that may even be contradictory have considerably contributed to developing images about islands throughout history. The geographical topos of island is a field of projection for fiction and fantasies embodied in classic ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ island ascriptions. From a geographical perspective, the topos of island is a living place and outpost of global networks in the literal and nonliteral sense.

Keywords

Topos Societal horizon Historico-cultural perspective Germ cells of worlds Experiments of thought Island narratives Island palimpsest Nissology 
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  • Beate M. W. Ratter
    • 1
    • 2
  1. 1.Institute of GeographyUniversity of HamburgHamburgGermany
  2. 2.Institute of Coastal ResearchHelmholtz Zentrum GeesthachtGeesthachtGermany

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