Abstract:
This thesis reconceptualises islands beyond their common definition of ‘land enclosed by water’ to view them instead as objects extending into mainland spaces. As a geographical category, the island has a long history of being used as a metaphor for describing a variety of enclosed spaces, often with little reference to real island lives. In seeking to avoid this tendency, I speak of islands, not as metaphors per se, but rather, as material and affective spaces forming part of a broad continuum of coastal places. This relational view strikes a balance between articulating the particularity of islands and their connection to other islands, mainlands, and connecting technologies. In order to maintain this tension, I situate the thesis in an emerging form of philosophical realism known as Object-Oriented Ontology. This object-oriented approach suggests that islands must be treated as being irreducible to their component parts as well as to their effects on human worlds. Unlike former realisms which presumed that human knowledge could be made to correlate directly with the world, Object-Oriented Ontology rejects this notion, suggesting that objects, such as islands, cannot be known, yet their effects can be traced obliquely. While the methodological implications of this at first appear difficult to reconcile, I suggest that a reengagement with aesthetic theories of knowledge, such as those found within poetry or the fine arts, offer a less totalising way of seeing islands, as well as opening up new avenues for exploring ‘the island effect’ within mainland spaces. I demonstrate this with a discussion of the islandness of Auckland’s Waitākere Ranges, which despite not being enclosed by water, nevertheless function as a ‘real island’.
