In this course we will be thinking and talking about
a wide range of examples of “Literature of Hawai‘i.” We will be tracing
different literary genealogies and exploring our own definitions of this living
and growing genre of creative expression. Instead of thinking of literature as
something static to be studied or contained on the page, we will pay close
attention to literature in socio-political-historical context, and ground
ourselves in specific historical examples to see how literature responds to and
works upon the world. We will be focusing on the historical development of
Hawai‘i as a harmonious, multicultural “melting pot,” and the ways that
literature from the 1970s to the present has embodied and challenged this idea.
Throughout, we will be discussing complex and important themes like identity, language(s),
(de/anti) colonialism, aloha ‘āina, humor, resistance, indigeneity, race,
class, gender, and sexuality. And we will be honoring the richness of this
genre by stretching the boundaries of “literature” to include performance,
visual, oral, and musical texts.
Course Requirements
attendance and lively class discussion and participation
3 four-page essays
2 two-page close-reading papers
attending one community literary event
creative writing assignments
final exam/project
Required Texts (tentative, please
wait until classes start before purchasing)
Rolling the R’s (Kaya Press, 1997)
The
Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (UH Press, 2014)
Pacific
Tongues 2014 anthology
Course Reader