In Splendid Isolation: A Deconstructive Close-Reading of a Passage in Janet Frame's "The Lagoon" 2004 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor)Student thesis

Abstract [en]

In reading the literary criticism on Janet Frame's work it soon turns out that Frame was deconstructive before the concept was even invented. Thus, deconstruction is used in this essay to close-read a passage in the title story of her collection of short stories, The Lagoon (1951). The main hierarchical dichotomy of the passage is found to be the one between "the sea" and "the lagoon," in which the sea is proven to hold supremacy. "The sea" is read as an image of the great sea of English literary/cultural reference whereas "the lagoon" is read as an image of the vulnerably interdependent, peripheral pool of it, in the form of New Zealand literary/cultural reference. Through this symbolic and post-colonial reading the hierarchical dichotomy between "the sea" and "the lagoon" is deconstructed and reversed. In the conclusion, a post-colonial trace of Maori influence displaces the oppositional relation between "the sea" and "the lagoon."

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages

2004.

Keywords [en]

Janet Frame, The Lagoon, New Zealand, deconstruction, Derrida, post-colonial studies, scala naturae, chain of being, caste, karma, original sin, Hinduism, Sanskrit

Identifiers

URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-13278Local ID: U12372OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-13278DiVA, id: diva2:368458

Uppsok

Humanities, Theology

Note

Denna uppsats kan beställas från arkivet / This paper can be ordered from the archive. Kontakta / Contact: arkivet@hh.seAvailable from: 2010-11-09 Created: 2010-11-09 Last updated: 2025-10-01Bibliographically approved

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