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Virtually Impossible: Deleuze and Derrida on the Political Problem of Islands (and Island studies)
Citation
Williams, S, Virtually Impossible: Deleuze and Derrida on the Political Problem of Islands (and Island studies), Island Studies Journal, 7, (2) pp. 215-234. ISSN 1715-2593 (2012) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
2012 Institute of Island Studies,University of Prince Edward Island, Canada This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution: No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Licence.
Official URL: http://www.islandstudies.ca/node/390
Abstract
It is commonplace to think of an island as a discreetly bounded unit. Selected
writings on islands by the poststructuralist philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida reveal the island variously to be both real and imaginary, mythological and scientific, but as most problematic when constituted in political terms as an indivisible, sovereign entity. These two thinkers’ more broadly developed concepts of the virtual and the impossible, respectively, are seen to disrupt any assumptions about the fixity and closure of the island polity. Instead they emphasize its actualization through processual relations that can be difficult and yet are dynamic and decisive in effecting the move from being to becoming-other. However, as the possibilities for instituting more ethical as well as different political relations are subsequently
opened up, the question of island studies remaining in its currently coherent, familiar form is raised for consideration.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Research Division: | Studies in Human Society |
| Research Group: | Human Geography |
| Research Field: | Social and Cultural Geography |
| Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Group: | Expanding Knowledge |
| Objective Field: | Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society |
| UTAS Author: | Williams, S (Dr Stewart Williams) |
| ID Code: | 79472 |
| Year Published: | 2012 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 6 |
| Deposited By: | Geography and Environmental Studies |
| Deposited On: | 2012-09-14 |
| Last Modified: | 2018-03-19 |
| Downloads: | 561 View Download Statistics |
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