Shima
ISSN: 1834-6057
Aquapelago Anthology
- Introduction: The Space of Aquapelago 10.21463/shima.aq.anth.int
- Aquapelagos and Aquapelagic Assemblages: Towards an integrated study of island societies and marine environments
Archipelago, aquapelago, aquapelagic assemblages, Island StudiesThe loose interdisciplinary field known as 'Island Studies' has recently recognised the need to formulate an address to archipelagos in addition to the more atomised or generalised studies that have typified its first two decades of operation. While this is a significant development in itself, it also serves to identify the necessity for a more holistic comprehension and analysis of the interrelation of marine and terrestrial spaces in areas of the planet in which small fragments of land are aggregated in marine spaces. In order to focus on the character and dynamics of the latter, this paper proposes a reconceptualisation of such spaces in terms of their constituting 'aquapelagic assemblages'; a term I propose to emphasise the manner in which the aquatic spaces between and around groups of islands are utilised and navigated in a manner that is fundamentally interconnected with and essential to social groups' habitation of land.
- Shima and Aquapelagic Assemblages: A Commentary from Japan
Archipelago, aquapelago, aquapelagic assemblage, shima, JapanThis commentary is a response to Hayward's article about aquapelagos elsewhere in this issue (2012), mainly elaborating on his passages concerning Japan by providing a response from that national context and adding some theoretical considerations pertinent to his concept of 'aquapelagic assemblages'. In order to bridge the two parts, I re-introduce and re-characterise the spatial idea of shima, which I initially proposed in an earlier article in this journal (Suwa, 2005), as a type of aquapelagic assemblage.
- Archaeology, Aquapelagos and Island Studies
Archaeology, archipelago, aquapelago, Mediterranean, MaltaThe burgeoning concept of the aquapelago is reviewed here in general terms and specifically in light of its applicability to archaeology, where a comparable debate has been taking place over the development of an archaeology of the sea to match that of the islands. The study of the sea in its own right is a promising approach, nonetheless we should still aim to address the continuum formed by islanders, land and sea.
- Getting Wet: A Response to Hayward's concept of Aquapelagos
Archipelago, aquapelago, maritimity, ocean, seaThis brief rejoinder explores some of the nuances of the archipelago as they connect and contrast with Philip Hayward's suggestions (elsewhere in this issue). In particular, it charts three sets of navigational forays into the implications of a stronger appreciation of the marine in island(er) lives.
- Seas As Places: Towards a maritime chorography
Aquapelago, chorography, local knowledgeThis short response to Hayward's proposal of the concept of aquapelagos elsewhere in this issue provides a context for such re-imaginings of place and human occupation and identifies chorography as a potential model for further exploration.
- The Constitution of Assemblages and the Aquapelagality of Haida Gwaii
Aquapelago, aquapelagic assemblages, actants, Haida Gwaii, Gwaii HaanasAquapelagos can be defined as assemblages of the marine and terrestrial spaces of groups of islands and their adjacent waters that are generated by human habitation and activity. This article explicates the nature of an assemblage (in this context) and addresses the manner in which assemblages are constituted at particular historical points and subsequently modified due to indigenous and/or exogenous processes, influences and/or events. It outlines the parameters of these modifications and the variegation of aspects of aquapelagality. The article uses the communally constituted locale of the Haida Gwaii aquapelago as a paradigmatic example with particular regard to historical factors and particularly those related to the establishment of the Gwaii Haanas marine conservation area and Haida heritage site. Discussion of these aspects illuminates key elements of the concept of the aquapelago.
- Naming the Aquapelago: Reconsidering Norfolk Island fishing ground names
Toponymy, fishing ground names, language aesthetics, linguistic fieldwork, toponymic ethnography, aquapelagoFishing ground names are an understudied taxon in toponymy. By reviewing the author's recent consideration of this toponym taxon, this article claims that an aesthetic appreciation of fishing ground names and their emplacement as linguistic and cultural ephemera is warranted within Island Studies and recent scholarship in aquapelagos.
- The Island/Sea/Territory Relationship: Towards a broader and three dimensional view of the Aquapelagic Assemblage
Aquapelagic assemblage, aquapelago, Channel Islands, Island Studies, maritories/merritoires, St-Pierre-et-Miquelon, TrinidadThrough my research in geography I have developed a particular interest in insularity and territorialisation of marine spaces. By linking these two elements, the concept of aquapelagic assemblage has appeared at the right time and provides me with the opportunity of making a contribution to the exchanges about it in two directions. The first will pick up Philip Hayward’s remark that aquapelagic research “does not simply offer a surface model, it also encompasses the spatial depths of the water” (2012a: 5). This sentence reminds us of the stress on the issues that constitute – out of any specifically insular context – an important tendency in the appropriation process of marine space. Furthermore, the author, in a second article, has taken care to dispel doubts on a question which, he tells us, produced a reaction in a number of readers of his initial exposition of the concept – namely that the aquapelagic assemblage cannot simply be equated with archipelagic sites (2012b: 1-2). By promoting this concept, he establishes a distinction of a chorographic nature that deserves to be extended to more strictly insular and coastal contexts. I will return to this point in the second part of this article, principally with reference to examples of islands with which I am more familiar.
- Skimming the Surface: Dislocated Cruise Liners and Aquatic Spaces
Cruise ships, floating, aquatic spaces, aquapelagoModern, highly facilitated and luxurious cruise ships provide a highly particular type of environment and a very particular placement within oceanic and harbour spaces. In these regards they may be understood as floating entities effectively removed from their locales or, rather, as removed as they can be, barring issues of technological failure, accident and/or intrusion of extreme weather or geo-physical phenomena. Conceptualised as ‘floating pleasure palaces’, they are less like islands (with their complex gradations of connection to and social engagement with aquatic and sub- surface topographic space) and (increasingly) more like hovercraft that skim across aquatic surfaces. Indeed, in many recent examples, the access to and connection with the marine space that provides the medium for and rationale of ‘the cruise’ is marginalised. This essay begins to theorise the rationale implicit in such disconnections.
- Career Decision Making in Island Communities: Applying the concept of the Aquapelago to the Shetland and Orkney Islands
Orkney, Shetland, aquapelago, careers, migrationGeographical location plays an important part in the career decision making of young adults, both in terms of the economic opportunities provided by the local labour market, and in terms of framing the social and cultural context within which decisions are made. Despite employment and migration being key concerns within island settings, little research has been done into the role of island contexts within career decision making of young islanders. In order to conceptualise the role of island contexts, this paper explores the potential of the concept of the aquapelago – identifying how the notion of the aquapelago brings together three key aspects of island contexts: labour markets, migrations and cultural background. The paper concludes that the concept provides a useful reframing of island contexts, but suggests that a greater awareness of diversity between different island aquapelagos and different inhabitants within these aquapelagos may be necessary.
- Chorographing the Vanuatu Aquapelago
Chorography, water music, aquapelago, aquapelagic assemblage, sand drawing, multiscalar, VanuatuThis article applies the concept of aquapelagic assemblages to an understanding of artistic and cultural expression in Vanuatu. Using the radical interdisciplinarity of a chorography, I explore the ways that ni-Vanuatu cultural practices such as water music and sand drawing manifest themselves as components of aquapelagic assemblages. Building on Epeli Hau’ofa’s idea of the Pacific as a “sea of islands” (1993) this article continues a project that privileges the voices of ni-Vanuatu artists and cultural producers. A sand drawing is presented as a chorographic inscription of multiscalar Oceanian ontologies informing an analysis of the livelihood aspects of human and non- human (inter)relations in-between, throughout and with islands, shores, seabeds and waters. This chorographic approach foregrounds the multiscalar dimension of aquapelagic assemblages and the interdependence of different aquapelagic assemblages with 21st Century globalised industry, science, and development. A case study of the Leweton community, featured in the Vanuatu Women’s Water Music DVD, shows that the framework of aquapelagic assemblages has value for revealing the creative processes in generating innovations in local art forms and the step-by-step process of commodification of intangible cultural heritage.
- [Feature Review] Sea Otters, Aquapelagos and Ecosystem Services
Haida Gwaii, sea otter, aquapelago, aquapelagic assemblages, ecosystem servicesN.A Sloan and Lyle Dick’s Sea Otters of Haida Gwaii: Icons in Human-Ocean Relations (2012) provides an historical overview of sea otter populations in Haida Gwaii, their environmental context, the crucial role that human intervention has played in their decline and a discussion of the impacts of their possible reintroduction to the region. This review essay considers conceptual aspects of the volume with regard to the reviewer’s previous discussion of Haida Gwaii as a paradigmatic aquapelago (Hayward, 2012b) and outlines how an awareness of the sea otters’ role in particular historical ‘acts’ in the aquapelagic space can inform understandings of the constitution of such spaces.
- Observations on the Concept of the Aquapelago Occasioned by Researching the Maldives
10.21463/shima.11.1.05
aquapelago, performativity, amphibious history, the MaldivesIn my recent work on the Maldives (Bremner, 2016), I drew on Hayward’s notion of the aquapelago (Hayward 2012a, 2012b) to theorise the Maldives and to develop a new metageographical concept for architecture in today’s globalised world. In this short contribution to Shima debates, I will highlight my observations on the Maldives and the concept of the aquapelago occasioned by this work.
The following articles published in other journals also contribute to development of the concept of the aquapelago:
- The Aquapelago and the Estuarine City: Reflections on Manhattan Urban Island Studies n1 (2015)
- Sounding the Aquapelago: The cultural-environmental context of ni-Vanuatu women's liquid percussion performance Perfect Beat: The Pacific Journal of Research into Contemporary Music and Popular Culture v15 n2
- Aquapelagic Assemblages: Performing Water Ecology with Harmattan Theater 10.1353/wsq.2017.0021 WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, v45 n1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2017
- Tanka Transitions: Shrimp Paste, Dolphins and the Contemporary Aquapelagic Assemblage of Tai O Locale n6 (2016) 1-19
- Seasteads and Aquapelagos: Introducing Nissology to Speculative-Fiction Studies Fafnir n1/20 (2020) 26-41
Islands & Micronationality Anthology
- Introduction: Islands and Micronationality (v2) 10.21463/shima.im.anth.int
- Captain Calamity’s Sovereign State Of Forvik: Micronations and the Failure of Cultural Nationalism
Micronations, Forvik, cultural nationalism, Shetland, independence movementsMicronations are often viewed as humorous phenomena, but, when linked to serious political movements, they have the potential to exert real political influence. In 2008, Stuart Hill (known as Captain Calamity) founded the micronation of Forvik on a small island in the archipelago of Shetland (Scotland, UK). Arguing that Shetland had never become part of the Scottish state, Hill sought to use Forvik as the springboard for a Shetland-wide self-determination movement. Although Hill’s rationale was primarily economic, Shetland possessed a strong pre-existing sense of cultural distinctiveness and tendencies toward cultural nationalism, which came to be popularly associated with Hill’s project. The Forvik micronation, however, received virtually no popular support, and, since its founding, Hill has struggled to make his argument heard through an amused global media and a hostile court system. Ultimately, this micronation has been detrimental to the development of a genuine Shetland self-determination movement and has weakened Shetland’s culturally rooted resistance to wider Scottish nationalism. This study illustrates how, far from bolstering associated nationalist movements, some micronations may lower them into ridicule and defeat.
- Contested Space: National and Micronational Claims to the Spratly/Truong Sa Islands - A Vietnamese Perspective
Truong Sa, Spratly Islands, Bien Dong, South China Sea, Vietnam, micronationsThe archipelago located in the eastern Pacific Ocean around 4-11 degrees North and 109-117 degrees East, known in English language as the Spratly Islands, in Vietnamese as the Truong Sa Islands and in Chinese as the Nansha Islands, has been subject to contesting claims that have intensified in recent decades with the growing perception that the area has substantial sub-surface oil and/or mineral deposits that could prove a lucrative asset to whichever country can establish a definitive claim over and related exploitation of them. Following an account of Vietnam’s historical presence in the area, the article discusses some of the more fanciful micronational claims that have been made over the region and Vietnamese efforts to consolidate their claim to sovereignty in the face of contesting claims from other regional powers. [Editorial Note – Shima invites submissions offering other perspectives on disputed island and marine sovereignty issues in the South East Asia Pacific region.]
- Queer Sovereignty: The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands
Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, micronationThe Gay and Lesbian Kingdom (G&LK) seceded from Australia in 2004. Emperor Dale Parker Anderson declared independence upon raising the rainbow pride flag on Cato Island in the Coral Sea Island. The decision to secede was made as a response to the Australian government’s 2004 action in presenting the Amendment of the Marriage Act 1969. In giving my account I draw on a 2007 interview, correspondence with Emperor Dale and other ethnographic material concerning the G&LK. Among other articulations, I consider its secessionist move in light of Linda Bishai’s critique in Forgetting Ourselves (2004). This is that for all its liberationist motivation, secession is essentialist in its conception, and inherently anti-democratic; her prediction is that its preoccupation with state formation is making it irrelevant in the age of ‘rhizomatic’ community networks. In its micronationalist ‘queering’, however, I find secessionist politics more relevant in late modernity, not less, as the pluralising democratic politics of identity and representation are increasingly unable to contest key outcomes of ‘family values’ and ‘national values’ rhetoric in the 21st Century. [Editorial Note – This is a revised version of an essay that was originally published in the journal Cosmopolitan Civil Societies in September 2009]
- “This Mere Speck in the Surface of the Waters”: Rockall aka Waveland
Rockall, Waveland, Greenpeace, UNCLOSRockall is a tiny granite knoll isolated in the stormy waters of the North Atlantic. It is not habitable and has of itself no economic value. However, given its location it has been a prize insofar as at one time it was thought its possession could bring control of an exclusive economic zone. Iceland, Ireland and Denmark laid claim in addition to the UK, which had annexed Rockall in 1955, the last territory to be taken into the British Empire. In 1972 Rockall was declared to be part of Scotland. However the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea (1982) now precludes rocks incapable of supporting life to be awarded economic zones. Interest in Rockall then reverted to symbolism especially in its occupation by Greenpeace in 1997 when the global state of Waveland was declared from Rockall’s summit, with Rockall itself as the capital. Greenpeace stayed on Rockall longer than anybody else and a claim has been established to it thereby, but Waveland itself collapsed with the failure of the company that serviced its online presence.
- North Dumpling Island: Micronationality, the Media and the American Dream
North Dumpling Island, Dean Kamen, micronationalityNorth Dumpling Island is a 3-acre stretch of land off the Atlantic Coast of the United States. The island has had five known owners since 1639, the most recent of whom is famed inventor and entrepreneur Dean Kamen. In 1986, Kamen launched a humorous campaign for the island’s secession in response to the State of New York’s denial of permission to build a wind turbine tower on his residentially zoned island property. The following article traces highlights of the media’s response to that campaign and discusses how Kamen has leveraged media publicity around his claims for micronationality to draw attention to his scientific and environmental initiatives, including a micronational model for sustainable energy consumption.
- In a Stew: Lamb Island’s flirtation with micronationality and the related consideration of a local representative body for the Southern Moreton Bay Islands
Lamb Island, micronation, South Moreton Bay, Southern Moreton Bay Islands (SMBI), QueenslandThis research note profiles the background to the short-lived secessionist impulse on Lamb Island in Southern Moreton Bay, Queensland (Australia) in 2013, the role that the media played in disseminating news about the initiative, the manner in which it was represented and its local significance. Further to this, the note outlines the manner in which discussions concerning the viability of an independent council for the four inhabited Southern Moreton Bay Islands (Lamb, Karragarra. Macleay and Russell) relate to the impetus for Lamb Island’s flirtation with micronationality.
- Shards of the Shattered Japanese Empire That Found Themselves as Temporary Micronations
Micronations, Japan, Bonin/Ogasawara, Izu islandsIn this short research note, I present a couple of instances in the 20th Century when some Japanese islands temporarily became tiny independent political entities not because of a conscious push to make them so, but because the islands went overlooked in the midst of international political maneuvering. In a manner of speaking, the islands were small and insignificant (and, being islands, not part of mainland Japan) isolated enough that when world leaders drew broad sets of lines on a map, it was easy to overlook the fact these islands had fallen through the cracks.
- “Give Me Fish, Not Federalism”: Outer Baldonia and Performances of Micronationality
Atlantic Canada, Outer Baldonia, micronation, performance, environment, diplomacyIn 1949 Russell Arundel, an American businessman and sport tuna fisherman, asserted the sovereignty of a small island off the south coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Arundel drafted a Declaration of Independence for the ‘Principality of Outer Baldonia’ and declared the nascent micronation to be a space of recreation, relaxation and tuna-fishing. International newspapers began to cover the story, and a critical letter in the Soviet Liternaya Gazeta prompted a flurry of tongue-in-cheek responses from Baldonian ‘citizens’. Although ownership of the island was transferred to the Nova Scotia Bird Society in 1973, the history of Outer Baldonia reveals a great deal about the types of social performances that correspond with declarations of micronational sovereignty. This article explores how the events surrounding the creation of Outer Baldonia reflect mid-20th Century elite attitudes towards nature and wilderness, as well as non-state diplomacy in the Cold War era.
- Islonia: Micronationality as an expression of livelihood issues
Islonia, Dry Island, micronation, absurdity, livelihood, shima, aquapelagoThis article describes the manner in which the owner-inhabitants of Dry Island, off the coast of the Western Scottish Highlands, claimed micronational status (as ‘Islonia’) in 2013, examines their reasons for claiming this status and identifies the results of the venture. Drawing on these characterisations, the article discusses the expression of local livelihood issues in micronational discourse and the manner in which local issues pertaining to Dry Island/Islonia can be understood with regard to the concepts of shima and aquapelagism advanced within Island Studies.
- Fleeting and Partial Autonomy: A historical account of quasi-micronational initiatives on Lundy Island and their contemporary reconfiguration on MicroWiki
Lundy, temporary autonomous zones, micronations, virtual micronations, MicroWikiMicronations are small territories that have been identified as independent by individuals or communities without recognition of that status by either the nation states within whose borders they fall and/or relevant international bodies. The term is of comparatively recent coinage and has largely been used to refer to entities that have claimed autonomous status since the 1960s. As a result, discussions of the phenomenon (such as those included the 2014 theme issue of Shima on islands and micronationality – v8n1) have tended to avoid engagement with the pre-history of the concept and have not examined how and why certain locations (and, especially in this context, types of islands) have leant themselves to quasi-micronational ventures at particular historical points. This article discusses the manner in which the history of the (now indisputably) English island of Lundy has seen a number of quasi-micronational incidents and outlines the shifting nature of their bases and manifestations. The article’s analyses emphasise the significant role that geography and, particularly, (in)accessibility play in forging micronational endeavours. The final section expands this frame of reference to discuss the imaginative reconfiguration of quasi-micronational initiatives on Lundy through the virtual micronation of the ‘New Kingdom of Lundy’ constituted within the online MicroWiki arena.
- Micro Nation – Micro-Comedy
Television, online television, comedy, micronations, Pullamawang IslandThis article considers how the concept of micronationality served as a launching pad for a broadcast comedy, the 2012 Australian television series, Micro Nation, set on the fictional island of Pullamawang. I argue that by setting the series within a fictional micronational environment, the creators were able to develop a distinct type of situation for the comedy, embedding the theme of relative size and isolation as a key aspect of the show’s content and utilising unusual production and broadcast techniques. The article’s analysis draws on literature from Television and Broadcast Studies, Island Studies and Genre Studies and reflects on the media representation of micronations more generally.
- Sark And Brecqhou: Space, Politics and Power
Brecqhou, politics, power, Sark, spaceSark is a British Crown Dependency that could be described as a type of micronation. It has been a fief of the Crown since the 16th century, and in the 21st Century instituted a form of democratic government. While not part of the UK, nor a sovereign state in its own right, Sark is a self-governing territory within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, and has substantial political autonomy, with its own legislature and judicial system. Sark’s political context comprises a binary existence as a jurisdiction spanning two populated islands: Sark and Brecqhou. This inter-island setting is complicated by Brecqhou having a special relationship with some privileges within the Fief of Sark, and offers a further level of quasi-micronationalism. This article discusses the history of Sark’s and Brecqhou’s inter- island relations. In the context of examining this island binary and the background to the contested ownership of Brecqhou and challenges to Sark’s political system, emphasis is placed on reframing the islands’ intertwined history and locality in connection with notions of space, politics and power. There have been various disputes over Sark and Brecqhou for many centuries, and in recent years the current owners of Brecqhou have argued that the island does not fall under Sark’s jurisdiction. This article shows that Sark exists in several ways within different island groupings and political relationships, and argues that closer analysis of this island context contributes both a case study of inter- island relations to Island Studies, and more broadly to re-thinking the political geography of islands in the context of spatial and power relationships.
- Brecqhou's Autonomy: A Response to Henry Johnson’s ‘Sark and Brecqhou: Space, Politics and Power’ (2014)
Keywords
Brecqhou, Sark, Barclay Brothers
- The Sark/Brecqhou Dyad: Jurisdictional Geographies and Contested Histories
Sark, Brecqhou, politics, power, spaceOver the past few decades, the islands of Sark and Brecqhou have featured in much media and legal discourse. Such factors as jurisdictional contestation, tension and criticism have arisen either between the owners of the private island of Brecqhou and the jurisdiction in which it is located, or as a result of other factors that have an association with Brecqhou on the larger island of Sark. As a type of microstate with a contested history and distinct traditional ways of life, the jurisdictional geographies in the Sark/Brecqhou dyad are of particular interest to the field of Island Studies. I use the term ‘Sark/Brecqhou dyad’ as a way of emphasising the distinct physical, political and social binaries that exist between the islands of Sark and Brecqhou. It is argued that key to understanding some of the points of contestation within and between this island dyad is a comprehension of some of the ways jurisdictional geographies and contested histories have been (re)interpreted. This article is an extension of my earlier article on the subject (Johnson 2014), and one that offers clarification, or one interpretation, of several significant points that help in comprehending this particular case of inter- and intra-island dynamics.
- [Correspondence Received] Sark and Breqhou (Continued)
- Operation Atlantis: A case-study in libertarian island micronationality
10.21463/shima.10.2.05
Operation Atlantis, micronations, seasteading, libertarianismThis article discusses Operation Atlantis, a project by a millionaire pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Werner K. Stiefel, to build a libertarian micronation off the coast of the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It reviews the history and motivations behind Operation Atlantis and discusses how it relates to contemporary libertarian new-nation ventures. Operation Atlantis developed in parallel to ‘back-to-the-land’ communities, which used small-scale technology to return to a ‘natural’ state through simplicity and self-sufficiency. But the main influence on Stiefel’s project was Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (1957), a novel inscribed with her Objectivist philosophy that tells the story of a group of millionaire industrialists who find refuge in a hidden community, Galt’s Gulch, also referred to as Atlantis. Interestingly, in recent years, a number of new offshore micronational projects sharing common influences and purposes and, in their own way, reviving the legacy of Operation Atlantis, have been launched in the United States. The Seasteading Institute is a non-profit working to build floating island nations. Designed as a ‘post-political’ manufactured space, Stiefel’s Operation Atlantis and seasteading borrow aspects of the cruise ship. To better understand the motivations behind Operation Atlantis and similar projects and to situate them within Island Studies, it is helpful to adopt Hayward’s concept of aquapelagos and uncover the disconnection between libertarian offshore micronations and the aquatic environment they intend to occupy.
Mermaids, Mer-cultures and the Aquapelagic Imaginary Anthology
- Introduction: Mermaids, Mercultures and the Aquapelagic Imaginary 10.21463/shima.12.2.03
- “Are Mermaids Real?” Rhetorical Discourses and the Science of Merfolk
10.21463/shima.12.2.04
Mermaids, fiction, reality, discourse, metaphorThe question ‘are mermaids real’? would appear, on the surface, to be fairly straightforward to answer, at least for those more inclined to base belief on verifiable facts and scientific evidence of phenomena. As such, this question posed by the USA’s National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration appears to be rhetorical rather than designed to elicit an actual answer. But a deeper rhetorical analysis of the discursive boundaries that presumably exist between popular culture and scientific discourses reveals that the mermaid question is far more complicated. This article addresses and unpacks the discursive spaces of science, prediction, myth, popular culture, and metaphor and argues that the boundaries that are permeated by constructs of merfolk are far more porous then they may seem at first glance.
- The Reay Mermaids: In the Bay and in the Press
10.21463/shima.12.2.05
Britain, Scotland, Caithness, Mermaids, PressC. 1798 and then again in 1809 a mermaid was seen at Reay on the very northern coast of Scotland. These two mermaid sightings were both described in letters in 1809 and afterwards the letters were, without the authors’ permission, printed in an Oxfordshire newspaper. The story created a national sensation in late August 1809 and the Reay mermaids became perhaps the most famous mer-folk to emerge from 19th Century Britain. In this article, I look at how the Reay mermaids were treated by the press and how the case can help us to exploit other mermaid encounters in 19th Century newspapers.
- Melusine As Alchemical Siren In André Breton’s Arcane 17 (1945)
10.21463/shima.12.2.06
Surrealism; André Breton, Melusine, Tarot, Rocher Percé/Percé RockIn 1941 the founder of the Surrealist art movement, André Breton (1896–1966), fled from France to New York. Here he met the artist Elisa Bindhoff (1906–2000) who would become his third wife. In the summer of 1944 they stayed on the Gaspé Peninsula in northeast Canada and during their three months there Breton wrote Arcane 17, an extended prose poem named after the 17th card – The Star – in the tarot’s Major Arcana. The work combined the personal with the mythical and reflected upon themes of love, loss and war, pertinent for Breton, who, like his new wife, had recently experienced profound personal misfortune. The Star symbolised hope and renewal. By associating this card with the medieval figure of the faery-siren Mélusine, Breton found an image through which he could channel his thoughts about everything from alchemy and politics to the future of humanity. In this article I explore why a 14th Century legend re-emerged in the 20th and what it offered to a broken man in the midst of global war.
- Melusine Machine: The Metal Mermaids of Jung, Deleuze and Guattari
10.21463/shima.12.2.07
Jung, Deleuze, Guattari, mermaid, nixie, unconscious, technologyThis article takes the image of the feminine water spirit or mermaid as the focus of its philosophical contemplation, using her image as a map to traverse the thought- realms of Jung, Deleuze and Guattari. The feminine, watery symbol in this elaboration acts as the glue that enjoins the ideas of Jung with Deleuze and Guattari and reveals the imbrication of their ideas. Through their streams of thought, the mermaid is formulated as an emblem of technology, as a metaphor that makes reference to the unconscious and its technological involutions, her humanoid-fish form providing an image of thought or way of talking about the transformation of form, and the flitting, swimming valences at work in the unconscious.
- Ningyo Legends, Enshrined Islands And The Animation Of An Aquapelagic Assemblage Around Biwako
10.21463/shima.12.2.08
Ningyo, ningyo no miira, Biwako, aquapelagic assemblage, sanctuary islandBiwako is the largest lake in Japan. Its waters, islands and shores have a rich mythology due, in substantial part, to their close proximity to the ancient cities of Kyoto and Nara. This article focuses on two interlinked aspects of the region’s aquatic legends. The first concerns the presence of ningyo (folkloric fish-bodied and human headed creatures credited with human-like intelligence) around the eastern part of the lake and their interaction with human communities. In several accounts, the ningyo were caught and killed by local villagers and a number of temples have subsequently claimed to hold the mummified bodies of these creatures. Nihonshoki, an imperial chronicle from the 1720s CE, tells of a ningyo that appeared as an omen of the death of a prince and folklore relates that the same prince enshrined a mummified ningyo in a local temple before his demise. In this manner, the prince, the legendary ningyo, the preserved ningyo, local villagers and the region’s enshrining religious institutions are intertwined within the aquatic system of Biwako. Secondly, the lake is known for centuries-old sanctuary islands on which Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines have been built. These contain sacred statues and talismans and indicate the manner in which the entire domain of individual islands is an object of worship. The (supposedly preserved) ningyo artefacts of shoreline and inland temples and the enshrined islands manifest and animate the overall aquapelagic assembly of the region. I use the word “animate” to express the manner in which local ningyo legends and sacred island spaces are experienced as “real”. The preserved ningyo artefacts and islands are animated in the spatial-conceptual context of the lake as the materiality of its water generates a whole territory of mythical and contemporary landscapes.
- When The Nereid Became Mermaid: Arnold Böcklin’s Paradigm Shift
10.21463/shima.12.2.09
Mermaid, Nereid, Triton, Böcklin, Olympian, RockArnold Böcklin’s untraditional depiction of the Nereid as mermaid merges two strands that classical representations of the sea creature endeavoured to keep separate and that Roman iconography yielded to the Nereid as idealised, anthropomorphic representative of the Olympian order in the treacherous realm that is the monster-breeding sea, and the erotically charged object of male attention. His intention, in his own words, was to fuse figure with setting and atmosphere, such that the Nereid was no longer simply a figure occupying the pictorial space, but embodied in her sensual shape and expression the drawing power of the sea, as well as the vertiginous suggestion of its abysmal depths. Böcklin concludes that the Nereid’s fusion with her environment leads logically to her being conceived as a mermaid, with fishtail. The sea is now no longer, as was the case in ancient iconography, a medium where the Nereid takes gentle rides on the back of always contrasting sea creatures, without ever seeming to merge with, or be affected psychologically by, their disturbing otherness, their difference from her.
- Desiring The Shore: Adolphe Lalyre and the Sirens of Carteret
10.21463/shima.12.2.10
Adolphe Lalyre, Sirens/Sirènes, Normandy, CarteretAdolphe Lalyre was a high-profile French painter in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who has now largely fallen into obscurity. Seemingly unmoved by the series of movements in Modern Art that came to prominence during his lifetime – including Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism – he persisted with a style of painting derived from Symbolism, initially favouring religious themes before moving on to a series of works representing (human-form) sirens during an extended residency at Carteret, on the coast of Normandy. The French term sirène refers to both human-form female water spirits and fish-tailed ones of the type usually referred to in English as mermaids. This article explores the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of Lalyre’s sirène paintings and discusses the pleasures and temptations they offered the viewer at an historical moment when Modernism, and Modernity more generally, was in its ascendancy. Our analysis examines Lalyre’s work within the specifically local context of Carteret and, more broadly, with late 19th and early 20th Century France, focusing on the importance of the artist and visual representations in the process of place-making and especially with regard to shifts in the meaning of sea and shore, along with the rise of the tourism industry.
- Submerging A Fantasy: J.W. Waterhouse’s Hylas and the Nymphs
10.21463/shima.12.2.11
Mythology, Victorian Art, Sexuality, Curation, Reception Studies, BritainResponses to and readings of nude paintings are influenced by contemporary debates on sexual power dynamics. The temporary removal of J.W Waterhouse’s ‘Hylas and the Nymphs’ from display in Manchester Gallery in January 2018 was criticised by commentators and visitors, and framed by the curators of the event as an experiment in re- evaluating the Gallery’s collections in light of current discussions on gender and sexual exploitation. This article will examine the significance of selecting ‘Hylas and the Nymphs’ for removal, providing context of the Greek myth the painting depicts and its reception in Victorian Britain, and review the relevance of water nymph iconography and the themes of submergence in water nymph narratives in regard to curation.
- Research Note: Lion-Ships, Sirens And Illuminated Cartography: Deploying heraldic and folkloric figures in critique of Brexit
10.21463/shima.12.2.12
Lion-ship, Siren, Mermaid, Heraldry, Brexit, Cinque PortsThis short research note provides an introduction to the lion-ship symbol of England’s Cinque Ports (comprising the head, forelegs and upper torso of a lion and the middle and rear section of a 13th Century turreted wooden warship) and an artist’s statement concerning my deployment of it alongside the more established figure of the (mermaid- form) siren in a recent artwork entitled ‘Brexit Wrexit’ that reflects my feelings about the United Kingdom’s 2017 vote to leave the European Union. These figures are juxtaposed over a freely rendered map of Western Europe, providing a form of illuminated cartography. Discussion of the overall work, of details from it and their inspiration point to the manner in which long-established heraldic motifs and cultural figures contain embedded meanings that can be activated in fresh contexts to illuminate current socio-political developments.
- Syrenka Tattoos: Personal Interpretations of Warsaw’s Symbol
10.21463/shima.12.2.13
Mermaid, Syrenka, Warsaw, tattoos, semioticsThe Mermaid of Warsaw — known in Polish as the Syrenka — is the principal feature of the city’s coat of arms. In recent years it has also become popular with residents as a tattoo design that has civic, community and individual significance. This article analyses a selection of Syrenka-inspired tattoos inscribed on the bodies of city residents. Although approximately 90% of the images addressed conform to the classic model of the Syrenka, with regards to the position of the figure’s sword and shield, in most other aspects the tattoos differ significantly from the one featured the coat of arms, referencing other images of the Syrenka scattered throughout the city. As such, these tattoos represent more than simple homages to the city’s emblem; they evidence a sentimental bond with the community of Warsaw and express the tattooed individuals’ commitments to and attitudes toward their metropolitan locale.
- Enchanted Selves: Transgender Children’s Persistent use of Mermaid Imagery in Self-Portraiture
10.21463/shima.12.2.14
Mermaids, Gender, Children’s Media, Transgender Children, Childhood, Girl CultureIn recent years, there has been a surge of popular interest in the lives and experiences of transgender and gender diverse people. However, this interest has been disproportionately focused on adults and teens, on biomedical framing and persistent binarism, without paying attention to young transgender and gender diverse children’s engagement with culture, media and meaning. This article presents data from an ongoing arts-based ethnographic study of young transgender and gender-diverse children (ages 3-10) in the United States. In this study, feminine-identified transgender children repeatedly drew themselves as mermaids in self-portraits and highlighted the importance of other mermaid- related play throughout their drawings and narratives. Even very young transgirls insisted that their drawings of mermaids represented the joy of being able to be their true selves, affirmations of femininity and nascent trans pride. This article begins with a brief discussion of mermaids in Western culture and media, followed by a more in-depth focus on the applicability of the mermaid as metaphor for understanding young transgirl experience, representation and feminine credentialing.
- “I’d Like To Be Under The Sea”: Modelling gender in Clara F Guernsey’s The Merman and the Figure-Head
10.21463/shima.12.2.15
Mermaids, mermen, American literature, utopias, Clara F GuernseyThe focus of Clara F Guernsey’s short novel The Merman and the Figure-head: A Christmas Story is a merman who mistakes a ship’s figurehead for a nymph. Alongside this, in sharp and humorous parallel, runs the story of the merchant who commissioned the figurehead, which is based on a local woman whom he admires and then marries. Guernsey specifically refers to a tradition of writings about the mer-world, including Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘Den lille Havfrue’ (‘The Little Mermaid’), The Arabian Nights, and Moby Dick. Funny and light-hearted, the story uses the idea of an alternative underwater world to raise questions about human love and values, and challenges 19th Century assumptions about gender and behaviour. When one old mer-professor indignantly challenges the argument that human beings are undeveloped mermen, to staunchly argue that humans are, in fact, undeveloped walruses, Guernsey wittily employs “the world under the water” to satirise its above-water counterpart. Mer-culture enables a critique of human culture.
- “A Phallus Out Of Water”: The construction of mer-masculinity in modern day illustrations
10.21463/shima.12.2.16
Mermen, Mermaids, Masculinity, Male Pin-ups, Male bodies, Gay gaze, Female gaze, Medialore, Folklore, Gender, Gender studies, Queer theory, Cultural studies.The article addresses the representation of the male equivalent of the mermaid – the merman – in contemporary western illustrations found on the Internet. The article relies on a theoretical framework of gender studies, queer theory, masculinity studies and previous studies of the mermaid including those informed by psychoanalysis and folkloric studies. The merman is examined with regard aspects of gender, sexuality, masculinity and the intertextual relation to mermaid mythology, folklore and research. The article concludes that contemporary illustrations of the merman perform a marginalised masculinity due to archetypally feminising components, such as sexual availability, exposing of erotic body parts, exoticisation and excessive beauty. The illustrations are mainly made to please a male homosexual gaze, although this is not always the case. Due to his marginalised position the merman does not oppose hegemonic conceptions of the binary gender system or the beauty ideals for the western man where whiteness, muscularity and youth are prioritised. The article counters earlier phallocentric explanations of the merman’s marginalisation and points to other feminising components, like the sensual round form of the fishtail and the merman’s close relation to nature.
- I’s The Merb’y: Masculinity, Mermen and Contemporary Newfoundland
10.21463/shima.12.2.17
Mermen, merb’ys, mermaids, masculinity, Newfoundland, aquapelagoIn late 2017 initial, low-key publicity for a charity calendar featuring a range of bearded Newfoundlanders posing as mermen resulted in international media coverage that discussed and commended the non-stereotypical images produced for the project. This article situates the calendar’s imagery within the history of regional folklore concerning mermen and mermaids, the socio-cultural character of the island of Newfoundland and, in particular, the milieu of its port capital, St. John’s. Through these perspectives, the article analyses aspects of masculinity present in an island society that has experienced significant transitions in recent decades in relation to the decline of its fishery, the increasing work- related mobility of former fisherpeople, increasing ethnic diversity and immigration, and the breaking down of once strongly held attitudes of Newfoundland as being isolated, homogenous and tradition-based. In terms of Island Studies discourse, this has involved the island’s transition from being a relatively autonomous aquapelagic assemblage to an increasingly post-aquapelagic one firmly incorporated within a nation-state. Long viewed as a quintessential “folk setting”, Newfoundland is in a state of change that includes the gradual modification of regional stereotypes of masculinity. The revised images and roles presented in the calendar can be seen to represent new, more fluid definitions of masculinity appropriate for an increasingly more cosmopolitan — yet proudly unique — island society.
- Mermaiding As A Form Of Marine Devotion: A case study of a mermaid school in Boracay, Philippines
10.21463/shima.12.2.18
Mertourism, human-aquatic relationships, mermaids, coastal and marine tourism, Boracay, PhilippinesMermaiding, the practice of wearing a mermaid tail and/or costume, and often swimming in costume, began in the mid-20th Century and has since grown into a global phenomenon. Despite its increasing popularity, there appears to be no research exploring mermaiding as a tourism activity. Consequently, this is the first study exploring the motivations and experiences of mermaid tourists, employing a case study approach at a mermaid school on the island of Boracay in the Philippines. Semi-structured interviews with one male and eight females, including an instructor/owner, revealed three major themes – fantasy, coastal and marine environment and the marine “other” – with a further overlapping of three core subthemes – power, beauty and hedonism. These subthemes helped explain the motivations to partake in such activities, which included being a waterperson, mythology, novelty and marine conservation. Despite a range of nationalities among the respondents (Brazil, Germany, New Zealand, United States, Philippines and Sweden), it is suggested that more extensive research on mermaiding be undertaken, especially at various locations around the globe.
- Research Note: Thinking With Mermaids Here & Now
10.21463/shima.12.2.19
Mermaid, early modern, epistemology studies, representationThis research note offers a reflection on my 2015 monograph, Mermaids and the Production of Knowledge in Early Modern England, and examines how the mermaid allows us to explore aspects of literature and culture in Renaissance England that might feel unfamiliar to a 21st Century audience. It then places the concepts employed in the book alongside the work of 21st Century scholars and artists who engage with the mermaid, and other watery creatures, in a variety of contexts in order to offer afterthoughts on how the mermaid continues to be a useful figure to think with here and now.
The following articles published in Coolabah n27 (2019), a themed issue on Folklore, Media-Lore & Modernity also contribute to debates around mermaids, mer-cultures and the aquapelagic imaginary:
- Reworking the postmodern understanding of reality through fantasy in M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water (2006) and Neil Jordan’s Ondine (2009)
10.1344/co20192720-30
Postmodern psyche, Reality, Fantasy, Storytelling, Meaning-making, Metafiction, UnconsciousIn the two feature films Lady in the Water (2006) and Ondine (2009), M. Night Shyamalan and Neil Jordan, respectively, present us with two grounded-in-reality fairy tales whose two male protagonists come in close contact with two mythical water creatures – encounters that positively reshape their perspective on reality through the use of fantasy. Shyamalan relates the story of an emotionally wrecked middle-aged man who rescues a ‘narf’ (a water nymph in an unoriginated ancient bedtime story) from the pool of the dreary building he is superintending, while Jordan follows the ordeal of a struggling Irish fisherman who accidentally fishes a ‘selkie’ (a Celtic seal-like water creature that has the power to assume full human form on land by shedding its seal skin). The two films negotiate the problematic connection between the fantastic and the real, and question the postmodern concept of representations masking an absence of solid reality as proposed by Jean Baudrillard. The paper focuses on tracing the ontological and linguistic role of fantasy in relation to reality and delineates how acts of storytelling and representation can refashion the human psyche’s perception of reality in a postmodern world by analysing the narrative and psychological means by which this relation is constructed in Shyamalan’s and Jordan’s films. The main argument of the paper is to explore how employing metafictional narrative techniques and reworking the psyche’s ties to fantasy can offer the postmodern individual a more enabling understanding of themselves and their reality.
- Sung by an Indigenous Siren: Epic and Epistemology in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria
10.1344/co20192752-71
Alexis Wright, Indigenous Australian literature, generic innovation, mermaids, Indigenous sovereigntyOne of Australia’s most distinguished Indigenous authors, Alexis Wright, stages the fleeting presence of a popular character of Northern European folklore, the mermaid, in an awarded novel of epic proportions. The mermaid is not a haphazard appearance in this Antipodean narrative, but one of the multiple, cross-cultural ways in which Carpentaria, first published in 2006, invites the reader to reflect upon the ongoing tensions between the disenfranchised Indigenous minority and the empowered non-Indigenous mainstream, and their serious lack of communication due to the antagonistic character of their respective universes, one rooted in a capitalist paradigm of ruthless economic exploitation and the other in a holistic, environmentalist one of country. This essay addresses how Carpentaria, by writing across Indigenous and European genres and epistemologies, makes a call for the deconstruction of colonial discourse, for an invigorating Indigenous inscription into country, and for intellectual sovereignty as the condition sine-qua-non for the Indigenous community to move forward.
- Under the Mermaid Flag: Achzivland and the performance of micronationality on ancestral Palestinian land
10.1344/co20192772-89
Achzivland, Micronationality, Palestine, Israel, Mermaids, Peter PanThis article considers the relationship between symbolism, interpretation and grounded reality with regard to “Achzivland,” a small area on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean that was declared an independent micronation in 1972. The article commences by identifying the principal geo-political and military factors that created the terrain for the enactment of fantasy utopianism, namely the forced removal of the area’s Palestinian population in 1948 and the nature of Israeli occupation and management of the region since. Following this, the article shifts to address related symbolic/allusive elements, including the manner in which a flag featuring a mermaid has served as the symbol for a quasi-national territory whose founder — Eli Avivi — has been compared to the fictional character Peter Pan, and his fiefdom to J.M. Barrie’s fictional “Never Never Land”. Consideration of the interconnection of these (forceful and figurative) elements allows the discourse and rhetoric of Achzivland’s micronationality to be contextualised in terms of more concrete political struggles in the region.
- King Neptune, the Mermaids, and the Cruise Tourists: The Line-crossing Ceremony in Modern Passenger Shipping
10.1344/co20192790-105
Cruise industry, line-crossing ceremony, mermaids, passenger shipping, commodificationThe line-crossing ceremony is an ancient maritime tradition that marked the transition from inexperienced sailor to experienced sailor. This ceremony has been co-opted by the cruise industry for the purposes of portrayal and commercialisation of the heritage of passenger shipping for consumption by cruise tourists. This paper discusses this process of adoption and commodification of the traditional crossing the line ceremony by the modern cruise industry. While the cruise ship version bears some similarities to the traditional ceremony, it differs in purpose, the brutality of the original version is lessened, and the gender onboard cruise ships permits a difference in the makeup of participants (including the portrayal of mermaids) and a reduction in the need for transvestite performances. It exists for two reasons: for the amusement and diversion of passengers, and in an attempt to buttress the historical portrayal of cruise ship as part of a naval tradition. Data is drawn from interviews with cruise ship workers and published accounts of the ceremony by cruise tourists.
- Through an Ale Glass, Palely: Mermen, Neptune/Poseidon and Tritons as motifs in beer brands and product labels
10.1344/co201927106-135
Mermen, Neptune, beer, hybridity, folklore, product labellingWhile the merman has been a minor figure in modern popular culture — in marked contrast to his gender counterpart, the mermaid — the figure has begun to enjoy a resurgence in several cultural niches in recent decades. One of the most notable of these has occurred with regard to the branding and marketing of types of beer and, in particularly, with the burgeoning ‘craft beer’ movement that has taken off in North America, Europe and Australasia (in particular) since the early 2000s. After an introduction to the merman in popular culture, this article analyses the use of mermen and related fish-tailed mythological males in brewery names and symbols, on beer bottle labels and in related marketing material. The article considers the product image created by such symbolism and the manner in which it might be modifying the role and perception of the merman and related figures in contemporary popular culture. It furthermore aims to illustrate ways that contemporary abstract, naïve, camp and kitsch depictions of mermen are embraced by breweries to situate themselves as culturally engaged, environmentally oriented, or anti-establishment agitators.
- Aquatic Heterosexual Love and Wondrous Cliché Stereotypes: Amphibian Masculinity, the Beast Bridegroom Motif and ‘the Other’ in The Shape of Water
10.21463/shima.10.2.05
The Shape of Water (film), Masculinity, Media StudiesThis paper addresses the representation of masculinities in the award-winning romantic fantasy film The Shape of Water (2017). The study examines how The Shape of Water communicates with other texts and myths portraying aquatic entities such as Gill Man from The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and how the movie is tied to the folkloric tradition of monstrous love interest. Further, the text investigates how otherness is portrayed and constructed through the different representations in the movie. The paper concludes that the film’s diverse characters create a superficial appearance of an understanding for marginalised subjects. The Shape of Water is a classic beast bridegroom fairy tale with stagnated representations of feminine and masculine ideals that turn ‘the other’ into an instrument of self-realisation for a white subject. Moreover, the Amphibian Man is differentiated from his aquatic female counterparts through traditional masculine attributes such as a muscular body type, a reptilian appearance and being two-legged instead of having a fishtail.