Self-Reflexivity in Umberto Eco’s the Island of the Day Before

Abstract

Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day before (henceforth referred as IDB throughout the paper) deals with a third person narrator narrating the survival events of Roberto della Griva’s life in a deserted Pacific island. Roberto records these events as a manuscript in his diary. The narrator later reveals his assumption that this manuscript might have been discovered by Abel Tasman, a seafarer- in his fortuitous detours to the island of the same region and has come upon Roberto’s papers in his adventurous voyages. The narrator then tells his readers the realm of conceivability: Tasman considers the manuscript confidential and passes it on to the Dutch geographers after realizing that the manuscript includes some discussion of the problem of longitudes. Years later, the invention of marine chronometer puts an end to the search of Punto Fijo. With this, Roberto’s papers that have been once believed to be holding some important information regarding the search of longitudes, becomes no more a subject of interest and necessity. Hence, Roberto’s papers end up in the hands of manuscript collectors like the narrator of IDB.