In this course, we will be reading
literatures written by a broad range of writers who focus on the importance of
the languages, cultures, and knowledges that shape and are shaped by Hawai‘i as
a place. We will first examine the ways
that Kanaka ‘Ōiwi writers like Queen Lili‘uokalani trace their genealogies back
to the kulāiwi, the ancestral lands, mapping through mo‘olelo, stories and
histories, the literary and cultural significance of places that are a part of
our daily lives. Later, many other
narratives emerged from efforts in the 1970s to define a “local” identity in
community struggles to protect leased agricultural lands slated for commercial
and urban development. Visual texts of
local solidarity in newspapers show people linking their arms in a human
blockade across Kamehameha Highway in front of the Waiāhole Poi Factory in
protest against the police-enforced eviction of farmers. Throughout the course, we will sketch the
literary, historical and political contexts that map our knowledge and reading
of land and places in Hawai‘i. We will discuss the complexities of local
communities, such as the survival strategies of a young local Filipino boy
growing up gay and working-class in Kalihi and the sexual trafficking of Korean
women to the local bar system on Ke‘eaumoku Street that is the transnational
legacy of Japanese and U.S. militarism in Korea. As we learn from these stories, we will conclude
by reading and learning from Hawaiian movements for life, land, and sovereignty
that have impacted the lives of all people in Hawaiʻi. Through the knowledge we gain from mapping
these upon places in Hawai‘i that continue to exist or are being restored, we
will work toward envisioning a more sustainable future for Hawai‘i.
This course has a Hawaiian and Asian or
Pacific Issues (H) Focus designation.
Hawaiian and Asian issues are fully integrated into the main course
material and will constitute at least 2/3 of the course content.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) include
an awareness of the contributions of the literatures of Hawaiʻi to the
formation of the contemporary field of English Studies, including such
subfields as twentieth-century American literature, indigenous literature, ethnic
literatures, rhetoric, genre studies and cultural studies, written and oral
ability to situate the study of these literatures within broader critical and
historical conversations.
Requirements: Two mid-term exams, a final exam, seven
scheduled quizzes, attendance and participation.
Required
Texts (available at Revolution Books, 2626 S. King Street, between Puck’s Alley
and 7-11):
Queen
Lili‘uokalani, Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s
Queen(1898)
Course reader:
stories and poems from The Best of Bamboo
Ridge (1986) and Growing
Up Local(1998)
Lois-Ann
Yamanaka, Saturday Night at the Pahala
Theatre (1993)
R. Zamora
Linmark, Rolling the R’s(1995)
Nora Okja
Keller, Fox Girl (2002)
Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua,
Ikaika Hussey and Erin Kahunawai Wright, eds, A Nation Rising: Hawaiian
Movements for Life, Land
and Sovereignty (2014)
Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, The Value of Hawai‘i 2: Ancestral Roots, Oceanic Visions (2014)
A required
course reader will include works by Noenoe Silva, Linda Revilla, Tony Lee,
Gizelle Gajelonia, Ann Kapulani Landgraf, Mark Hamasaki, Dennis Kawaharada,
Keanu Sai, Darrell Lum, Judy Rohrer, Alice Chai, Richard Hamasaki, Ann Kapulani
Landgraf, Eric Yamamoto, Walter Ritte, and others. The course reader will be available during
the second week of classes.