'Managing Wilderness': Insular Topographies, Outcast Identities, and Cultural Representation in James Hawes' Speak for England, Scarlett Thomas' Bright Young Things, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi
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This paper addresses the topics of coast and sea in three contemporary British novels, Scarlett Thomas' Bright Young Things, James Hawes' Speak for England, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi, two of which have not yet met with wide critical acclaim. Being shipwreck/survival stories 'of sorts', the first novels effectively establish insular spaces as distorted cultural representations of the British mainland. While Thomas' work depicts insular seclusion as the result of a kidnapping experiment and shows the group of protagonists trying to come to terms with their being tested in enforced isolation, Hawes' protagonist Brian Marley experiences a challenging transit from wild place to a remotely preserved (or perverted) version of pre-Sixties England. The two novels skilfully link the images of an insular external wilderness with the depiction of a psychological internal wilderness which comes to the fore during the demanding process of managing the challenges of island wildernesses. Thus, the two novels can very well be regarded as disturbing representations of the consequences of insular seclusion and cultural isolation. To highlight this thesis and to introduce a third perspective, I will further investigate the topoi of island and sea in Yann Martel's Booker-Prize-winning novel Life of Pi. Although not limited to an insular setting per se, Martel's novel connects features of the classical Robinsonade with unexpected elements of island spaces and the question of identity formation.