Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This paper examines how Umberto Eco’s “The Island of the Day Before” (1996) redefines generic motifs of the castaway novel and undermines narrative authority to resist and revise fixed and one-dimensional representations of identity, as well as representations of the appropriation and domination of space and time that characterize shipwreck-literature from pre-colonial and colonial periods, the most well-known probably being Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” (1719). As such, Eco’s postmodern representation casts doubt on the legitimacy of any single interpretation of reality as well as the existence of absolute truth. His manipulation of time and space is achieved by alternating different worlds or contexts and time periods that engender the use of intertextual strategies to emphasize the non-linear and incongruous experience of space and time. As this paper will show, the main protagonist Roberto’s ambivalent tempo-spatial experience creates a state of liminality in which his identity becomes unstable and even hybridized. In addition, Eco’s parodic foregrounding of the cultural traits of the Baroque period functions to further complement his view on the nature of fiction as a narrative mode for revisiting, revising, and recycling the past.