Unexplored Worlds and Familiar Territories: Subversion and Reinforcement in the Tempest and Other Works
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Campus where you would like to present
Ellensburg
Event Website
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source
Start Date
15-5-2019
End Date
15-5-2019
Abstract
In this paper I argue that, beginning with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, fiction and science-fiction have used unexplored and untouched locales as a geographical tabula rasa where contemporaneous hopes and prejudices are overlaid and examined. Science fiction, owing a debt to The Tempest, both subverts and reinforces settler-colonialism in its treatment of unexplored locales, using the tropes and motifs of the genre to decenter the reader. This paper traces a direct lineage from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and explores a film adaptation of each work. I argue each work uses an ‘exotic’ and decentered location to examine, subvert, and simultaneously reinforce settler-colonialism in their respective historical contexts. Wells’ 1896 novel subverts Victorian mores and social Darwinism, while reinforcing Western civilization’s intellectual superiority. 1956’s The Forbidden Planet thrusts American imperialism and hegemony into the 23rd century, while exploring humankind’s intrinsically primal nature. Finally, the paper discusses the 1996 film The Island of Dr. Moreau, which exemplifies late-capitalism and postcolonialism, yet reinforces Western anxieties of civil unrest in burgeoning economies. Each of these works both entrench and depart from the colonialist ideologies of their respective eras, building upon the Tempest’s use of the ‘untouched’ island as a staging ground to examine human nature, ethics, language, and technology.
Recommended Citation
Jacobson, Kell, "Unexplored Worlds and Familiar Territories: Subversion and Reinforcement in the Tempest and Other Works" (2019). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 21.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/21
Department/Program
English
Slides for SOURCE 2019 presentation Jacobson
Additional Files
source presentation - kell jacobson.pptx (11107 kB)Slides for SOURCE 2019 presentation Jacobson
Unexplored Worlds and Familiar Territories: Subversion and Reinforcement in the Tempest and Other Works
Ellensburg
In this paper I argue that, beginning with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, fiction and science-fiction have used unexplored and untouched locales as a geographical tabula rasa where contemporaneous hopes and prejudices are overlaid and examined. Science fiction, owing a debt to The Tempest, both subverts and reinforces settler-colonialism in its treatment of unexplored locales, using the tropes and motifs of the genre to decenter the reader. This paper traces a direct lineage from Shakespeare’s The Tempest to Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and explores a film adaptation of each work. I argue each work uses an ‘exotic’ and decentered location to examine, subvert, and simultaneously reinforce settler-colonialism in their respective historical contexts. Wells’ 1896 novel subverts Victorian mores and social Darwinism, while reinforcing Western civilization’s intellectual superiority. 1956’s The Forbidden Planet thrusts American imperialism and hegemony into the 23rd century, while exploring humankind’s intrinsically primal nature. Finally, the paper discusses the 1996 film The Island of Dr. Moreau, which exemplifies late-capitalism and postcolonialism, yet reinforces Western anxieties of civil unrest in burgeoning economies. Each of these works both entrench and depart from the colonialist ideologies of their respective eras, building upon the Tempest’s use of the ‘untouched’ island as a staging ground to examine human nature, ethics, language, and technology.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2019/Oralpres/21
Faculty Mentor(s)
Barry Shelton