The novel follows Melina Pappas as she pursues her studies at university. Melina was born abroad and raised on the island - described vaguely, but with a resemblance to New Zealand - and thus occupies an in-between space in society which affects how she is perceived. As Catalina Rebus Segura describes, "She is passionate and shows it in her mannerisms and speech. However, islanders are defined as cold and indifferent as their body language is subdued to their detached speech."
"In The Island, Kefala focuses on perceptions and the consequences of interaction as well as on verbal and non-verbal communication."
Source: "Language and Bilingualism in Antigone Kefala’s Alexia (1995) and The Island (2002)" by Catalina Rebus Segura.
'Migrants modify the spaces around them: not only by leaving one territory but also by occupying another one. In fact, their physical appearance, their behaviour, their clothing, their preferences and/or their language may be factors used both by locals to pinpoint them and by immigrants themselves as identity markers. Greek-Australian Antigone Kefala explores the significance and uses of language in her tale Alexia: A Tale for Advanced Children (1995) and in her novella The Island (2002). In these texts, Alexia and Melina –the main characters, respectively- use language as a central tool in their struggle to make sense of the world they live in. Being migrants and bilingual, Alexia and Melina have a relation with language that is not understood by many, mainly locals. Kefala uses language as a marker of difference, but, as shown by Jane Warren (1999), this difference can also be a sign of ethnic pride. Consequently, this article not only explores the relation between language and the main characters in Alexia and in The Island but it also introduces other strategies migrants may use to approach languages. The questions to be answered are the following: “What is the relation of migrant characters with their mother tongue? And with the new language, culture, territory and space?” and “Are there alternative strategies?” The expected conclusions are that language can be understood as the ‘enemy’ and ‘friend’ (Kefala 1995: 104) which can both empower and disempower migrants, but which relates them to the space and people around them. Given the fact that language is a live entity, the strategies may be numerous and may vary in time. ' (Author's abstract)
Comments on the trilingual edition of The Island, with French translation by Marie Gaulis and Greek translation by Helen Nickas.
Sneja Gunew argues that Kefala's work has been marginalised by Australian literary criticism. 'The voice that manifest itself 40 years ago was categorized too quickly as "alien", a designation that has haunted Kefala's work thereafter. It is time to relocate her as a cultural pioneer who gave voice for over fifty years to those postwar immigrants who form an integral part of the fabric of Australian culture but whose contributions still require more systematic analysis and mapping, including a mapping in languages other than English.' (218)
Migrant Daughters : The Female Voice in Greek-Australian Prose Fiction
Melbourne
:
Owl Publishing
,
1992
Z27315
1992
single work
criticism
biography
