Island studies and its misconceptions have been shaped by the distinctive features of islands, not least their state of being surrounded by water and being seen to be “remote” from a mainland perspective.
For example, the term insular/insularity, derived from the Latin, differs in use between the French (insulaire, where it implies an idea of remoteness and mental isolation), and the English (where it has been associated at times with a negative form of introspection).
Resonating through many of the papers will be the type of island thinking associated with the poem by the Marshallese poet, performer, educator and activist Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner, which expresses a view of interconnectivity between people and the ocean and a native resistance to displacement.
Tongan-Fijian scholar Epeli Hau‘ofa (1939–2009) (“Our Sea of Islands”, 1994).
Martiniquais scholar and poet Édouard Glissant (1928-2011) (Poetics of Relation, 1996) previously emphasised related ideas of sea connectedness and subterranean relationality rather than separateness; a key concept common to many of the papers that follow.
