A Study On Two Representatives Of British Island Literature With The Perspective Of Post-colonial Criticism

In the literary writings, desolate island literature,with its unique charm,plays a very important role in the history of British literature. Desert island literature usually starts with a shipwreck somewhere on the sea and then all the stories take place on the sea or around the island nearby. The main characters are set on this isolated, desolate island, and at the same time the author develops his theme and attitude towards life and philosophy against the background of those islands. The writers of the island literature display the life process of the main characters struggling against the tough nature in these specific surroundings. So from the point of view of realism and romanticism, island literature sings praises of human heroism and courage in combating with the nature. As a result, island literature is loved for centuries by readers both old and young. In the later half of the 20th century, literary critics began to give their attention to the colonial ideology publicized in island literature. During this period, one that was comparatively influential and widely adopted by critics was the theory of postcolonial criticism, which provided a special perspective to the study of literary writings, especially island literature.In this thesis, two representative writings of British desolate island literature, The Tempest and Robinson Crusoe, are studied with the perspective of postcolonial criticism. The Tempest is a drama produced by Shakespeare in the year 1609, which is an epitome of early history of British colonization. This thesis exposes the colonial ideology reflected in this drama from the following aspects: 1. The history and ideology of British colonization reflected in the drama. 2. An etymological study of the signifying word"Barbarian", to reveal its symbolic meaning. 3. An analysis on the humiliating language in the drama to show the discrimination of the"Other". 4. Racial discrimination in love and marriage in the drama.Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe in the year 1704. Daniel Defoe lived in the period of fast development of capitalism in England, therefore his work, to some extent, reflected the spiritual features of the then rising bourgeoisie. Ever since its publication, it became one of most popular novels in the world literature. For...