ABSTRACT
Stevenson's folkloric fiction crosses both generic and national boundaries, dazzling the reader with fairy visions of foreign lands while at the same time testing complacent notions of British cultural dominance. This chapter reveals how folklore operates as an unstable tool of cultural power that evades any definite colonial containment, simultaneously serving as a subversive weapon against both the imperialists and the colonized. It is Stevenson's representation of supernatural folklore in particular that crystallizes the cultural critiques operating in 'The Beach of Fales'. Wiltshire's dismissive diction is significant, for he mocks the supernatural folklore using an economic metaphor; this speech act is an attempt to deny the validity of the claims of the island culture. One might call this 'linguistic imperialism'; Wiltshire uses an English adage folklore in itself to devalue Uma's culture. Stevenson, in 'The Beach of Fales' emphasizes the evil of European imperialism by Case's deceitful and uncanny manipulation of traditional folklore.
