Author(s)

Susi Xuan, Lihui Liu

College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.

While Shakespeare’s King John has long been examined for its political and dynastic tensions, the play’s geography imagination—particularly its articulation of insular territorial consciousness—has remained critically understudied. This paper argues that Shakespeare reconfigures England’s geopolitical identity by positioning the sea as both a literal and symbolic boundary, transforming the island from a peripheral “corner of the world” into a secure and self-contained entity with latent claims to centrality. Departing from medieval traditions that framed England as a marginalized Edenic “island garden”, the play reimagines England’s isolation as a strategic asset, leveraging maritime boundaries to assert sovereignty and insular exceptionalism. Through close analysis of key scenes, this study demonstrates how Shakespeare’s England emerges not as a passive geographical outlier but as a proto-imperial polity whose “water-walled” borders redefine its place in the early modern imaginary. And by interrogating the interplay of territorial rhetoric, maritime symbolism, and national identity, the paper illuminates King John’s role in inaugurating a discourse of insular community that would resonate through Tudor propaganda and beyond.

Shakespeare, King John, Insular Geopolitics, Maritime Boundaries, Community

Xuan, S. S., & Liu, L. H. (2025). Redrawing the Map of Sovereignty: Insular Geopolitics and the Maritime Reimagining of England in Shakespeare’s King John. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 13, 382-394. doi: 10.4236/jss.2025.133026.