Imagining ro: On the social life of islets and the politics of islandography

Abstract

This article engages the challenge of island history as caught in between national historiography and local life stories. It focuses on Ro, a Greek islet bordering Turkey that has been imagined and idealized as a space of national resistance and resilience. The article unpacks the grand national narrative that has been developed with regard to the heroic life story of a solitary woman living on the island. It utilizes local counter-narratives as well as the life stories of other solitary individuals who have periodically lived on the island. To that extent, the article aims, on the one hand, to sensitize as to the politics of islandography and, on the other, to highlight the importance of social history in challenging hegemonic or colonial narratives as well as reimagining island space.