Women As An Island: A Feminist Re-Reading Of Aritha Van Herk’s Places Far From Ellesmere

Abstract

This paper delves into the boundaries of fiction writing and beyond, examining how geography impacts the entire plot of the novel, Places Far From Ellesmere, by attributing human characteristics to physical areas. The enthralling fact revealed in Aritha Van Herk’s Places Far From Ellesmere is that geography allows for the re/reading of gender. The novel enables emancipation from servitude and establishes connection. The geographical locale transforms into the physical space that makes the unseen visible, so allowing for freedom of choice and action in an environment devoid of intervention. “Women as an island” is a fictitious concept that articulates a possible alternative for women in forging female identity through shared experiences and bonding through mental mapping and dream geography, which resulted in the establishment of a feminine utopia. The imagined construct of Ellesmere gives place to the growing concept of “woman as an island.” Ellesmere, with its unreachability and cartographic portrayal, beckons self-fulfillment and self-expression.