The elemental sea: representations of the Indian Ocean in selected Anglophone literature

This thesis analyses literary representations of the Indian Ocean region in selected works of
Anglophone literature. Whilst much has been written of this same geographic region from a
‘Francophone’ or ‘African’ perspective, relatively little scholarship has focussed on this region as it
has been ‘imagined’ into Anglophone fiction, particularly from the West/Australian littoral. I contend
that how a region is imagined shapes the discourse constructed around it. Drawing on the concept of
hydro-colonialism, this thesis considers how the Indian Ocean region, one of increasing global
significance, has been ‘imagined’ into Anglophone fiction