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The world to me is but a ceaseless storm”: pericles, the porpoise and exile as a site of resistance
Author(s)
Date Issued
2022
Citation
Bale, Rebekah (2022). The world to me is but a ceaseless storm”: pericles, the porpoise and exile as a site of resistance. Shakespeare Association of America Seminar 35 -Shakespeare and the Staging of Exile.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Pericles stages exile as an escape from uncovered secrets when the protagonist solves the riddle of the unnamed princess and her father’s sexual abuse. The plot device allows for the titular character to travel around the Mediterranean, involved in various adventures until his nemesis (and the princess) mysteriously die. Exile in the play appears temporary and gives Pericles much needed time and space after his unfortunate exposure of the King’s secret.
Mark Haddon’s novel The Porpoise repurposes exile in several ways: the main character Darius, is forced onto a boat in the English Channel, the princess character is kept prisoner by her father, isolated by both his wealth as well as his abuse. Exile becomes a site of resistance which circulates through the novel and connects it to the imagery of the Mediterranean as a focal point for our contemporary thoughts on migration and asylum.
I’d like to examine exile as this area in which we are both agents and victims of what Suparna Roychoudhury calls “perturbations” (2015). Haddon’s characters move through different versions of this state and for different reasons, not all of them negative. As Shakespeare does in Pericles, Haddon presents exile as a trope for understanding the other as well as ourselves.
Mark Haddon’s novel The Porpoise repurposes exile in several ways: the main character Darius, is forced onto a boat in the English Channel, the princess character is kept prisoner by her father, isolated by both his wealth as well as his abuse. Exile becomes a site of resistance which circulates through the novel and connects it to the imagery of the Mediterranean as a focal point for our contemporary thoughts on migration and asylum.
I’d like to examine exile as this area in which we are both agents and victims of what Suparna Roychoudhury calls “perturbations” (2015). Haddon’s characters move through different versions of this state and for different reasons, not all of them negative. As Shakespeare does in Pericles, Haddon presents exile as a trope for understanding the other as well as ourselves.
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