Shipwrecked

Shipwrecked: Disaster and Transformation in Homer, Shakespeare, Defoe and the Modern World presents the first comparative study of notable literary shipwrecks from the past 4,000 years, focusing on Homers Odyssey, Shakespeares The Tempest, and Defoes Robinson Crusoe. The recurrent treatment of shipwrecks in epic poetry, drama, novels, science fiction, movies, and television demonstrates an enduring fascination with this archetypal scene: a shipwreck survivor confronting the elements. It is remarkable, for example, that the characters in the 2004 television show Lost share so many features with those from Homers Odyssey and Shakespeares The Tempest. When survivors are stuck on an island for some period of time, shipwrecks often present the survivor with the possibility of a change in political and social statusas well as romance and even paradise. In each of the major shipwreck narratives examined, the poet or novelist links the castaways arrival on a new shore with the possibility of a new sort of life. James V. Morrison also considers the historical context as well as the triggers (such as the 1609 Bermuda shipwreck) that inspired some of these works, and modern responses such as novels (Goldings Lord of the Flies, Coetzees Foe, and Gordons First on Mars, a science fiction version of the Crusoe story), movies, television (Forbidden Planet, Cast Away, and Lost), and the poetry and plays of Caribbean poets Derek Walcott and Aim Csaire.