Winter Quarter 2004 Office: Denney 520
English 864: Seminar in Postcolonial Studies Office hours: Tues 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.,
Professor C. Allen Wed 10:00 a.m. – noon
Office phone: 247-7988 (voice mail)
e-mail: allen.559@osu.edu
Title: Literatures of Oceania
COURSE POLICIES & SYLLABUS
He toi whakairo Where there is artistic excellence
He mana tangata There is human dignity
--Whakatauki --Maori proverb
This course will introduce students to contemporary indigenous literatures of Oceania, in a variety of genres and media, and to relevant ways of theorizing “the Pacific Islands” and their relationship to the “postcolonial.” In particular, we will compare and contrast contemporary texts produced by Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) with contemporary texts produced by Maori from Aotearoa/New Zealand and contemporary texts produced by Pacific Islanders from places such as Samoa, Rotuma, Niue, Tonga, the Cooks Islands, and Fiji.
Required Texts
Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back (Routledge)
The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs 13.2 (Fall 2001), Special Issue: “Native
Pacific Cultural Studies on the Edge”
Figiel, Where We Once Belonged (University of Hawai’i Press)
Grace, Baby No-Eyes (University of Hawai’i Press)
Hau’ofa, Tales of the Tikongs (University of Hawai’i Press) *
Ihimaera, The Whale Rider (Harcourt)
‘Oiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal, vol. 1 (1998)
Trask, From a Native Daughter (University of Hawai’i Press)
Wendt, ed., Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since 1980 (University of Hawai’i Press) *
Wendt, Whaitiri, and Sullivan, eds., Whetu Moana: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English
(Auckland University Press, distributed by University of Hawai’i Press)
These books available from SBX, 1806 N. High Street (291-9528)
Recommended Texts
Postcolonial Theory:
Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction
Loomba, Colonialism/Postcolonialism
Moore-Gilbert, Post-Colonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics
Okonkwo, Decolonization Agonistics in Postcolonial Fiction
San Juan, Jr., Beyond Postcolonial Theory
Young, Postcolonialism
Pacific Novels and Plays:
Davenport, Song of the Exile (Hawaiian)
Davis, Vaka (Cook Islands)
Duff, Once Were Warriors (Maori)
Figiel, They Who Do Not Grieve (Samoan)
Grace, Cousins (Maori)
Grace, Dogside Story (Maori)
Hau’ofa, Kisses in the Nederends (Tongan)
Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise (Rotuman)
Holt, Waimea Summer (Hawaiian)
Hulme, The Bone People (Maori)
Ihimaera, The Uncle’s Story (Maori)
Kneubuhl, Hawai’i Nei: Island Plays (Hawaiian/Samoan) *
McMillen, School for Hawaiian Girls (Hawaiian)
Pule, The Shark That Ate the Sun (Niue)
Wendt, Black Rainbow (Samoan)
Pacific Studies:
Borofsky, ed., Remembrance of Pacific Pasts: An Invitation to Remake History *
Buck, Paradise Remade: The Politics of Culture and History in Hawai’i
Goetzfridt, Indigenous Literature of Oceania: A Survey of Criticism and Interpretation
Hanlon and White, eds., Voyaging Through the Contemporary Pacific
Hayward, Sound Alliances: Indigenous Peoples, Cultural Politics, and Popular Music in the
Pacific
Hereniko and Wilson, eds., Inside Out: Literature, Cultural Politics, and Identity in the New
Pacific *
Howe, Kiste, and Lal, eds., Tides of History: The Pacific Islands in the Twentieth Century
Kame’eleihiwa, Native Land and Foreign Desires: How Shall We Live in Harmony?
Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
Spickard, et al., Pacific Diaspora
Wilson, Reimagining the American Pacific: From South Pacific to Bamboo Ridge and Beyond
Wood, Displacing Natives: The Rhetorical Production of Hawai’i
* denotes a book already placed on reserve in the Main library
Assignments
1. Class Participation.
Students will be rewarded for actively contributing to class discussions and for listening
attentively, as well as for coming to class on time, well prepared, and with a positive
attitude.
2. Discussion Leader/Handout.
Each student will sign up to be a designated discussion leader twice during the quarter.
When you are a discussion leader, you are responsible for 1) preparing questions to help spur class discussion, 2) pointing the class to relevant passages in the assigned reading(s), 3) offering your own interpretations and/or critiques of the assigned readings, and 4) preparing a one-page handout of your main points.
3. Summary/Critique of Postcolonial Theory. Due Tuesday, 20 January.
Each student will choose a book of postcolonial theory, either one of the books listed
above or another recent work of the student’s choice, to read on her or his own and then
write a 3 – 5 page summary and critique.
4. Book Review: Pacific Studies. Due Tuesday, 3 February.
Each student will choose one of the books listed above under “pacific studies” to read on
her or his own and then write a 3 – 5 page review of the book.
5. Novel/Play Response and Brief Presentation. Due Tuesday, 9 March.
Each student will choose one of the books listed above under “pacific novels” to read on
her or his own and then write a 3 – 5 page response to the book. In the final week of the
quarter, students will give brief presentations on the novel they read.
6. Final Response Project. Due Monday, 15 March.
This is your chance to be creative. Respond to the readings and topics discussed in the
course, as well as your own research into relevant topics, in any way that seems
appropriate to you. You may choose to write a formal academic essay, a more personal
or creative response, a pedagogical project (e.g., course proposal and syllabus), or
something else. Please talk to me during the quarter about your ideas.
NOTE: This syllabus is subject to minor adjustments over the course of the quarter. It is each student’s responsibility to keep up with changes announced in class.
Daily Syllabus
1. Voyaging Out and Into the Pacific: Some Preliminary Paddling
Week 1
Tues 1/6 For the first class read Hau’ofa, “Our Sea of Islands,” “The Ocean in Us,”
and “Epilogue: Pasts to Remember” (handouts); Finney, “The Other
One-Third of the Globe” (handout); and Ashcroft, Griffiths, and
Tiffin, The Empire Writes Back.
Web assignment: visit these two web sites dedicated to Pacific Studies and
Pacific Literature (put together by Elizabeth DeLoughrey at Cornell):
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/emd23/Pacific/LPI.html
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/emd23/Pacific/PIauthors.html
Discussion prompt: Think about the points of intersection and the points
of disconnect between Oceania and “the postcolonial.”
Thurs 1/8 Read Trask, From a Native Daughter.
Web assignment: visit Nation of Hawai’i web site:
http://www.hawaii-nation.org
and the web site for the Program in Hawaiian Studies at
University of Hawai’i-Manoa: begin at the site for the School of
Hawaiian, Asian and Pacific Studies at http://www.hawaii.edu/shaps/ and
follow the links to the Center for Hawaiian Studies.
In-class viewing of Trask, CD ROM, We Are Not Happy Natives.
2. Confiscated in/by the
Week 2
Tues 1/13 Read ‘Oiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal.
Discussion leaders #1:__________________________________________
Thurs 1/15 Read Hawaiian poetry in Whetu Moana and Kneubuhl, “Ola Na Iwi,”
from her book Hawai’i Nei: Island Plays (on reserve in the main library).
Discussion leaders #2: _________________________________________
3. Tangata Whenua in Occupied Aotearoa:
Week 3
Tues 1/20 Read Ihimaera, “The Whale” (electronic reserve) and The Whale Rider.
Discussion leaders #3: _________________________________________
Summary/Critique of Postcolonial Theory due in class.
Thurs 1/22 In-class screening of Whale Rider.
Week 4
Tues 1/27 Discussion of the film Whale Rider.
Discussion leaders #4: _________________________________________
Thurs 1/29 Read Grace, “Influences on Writing” (electronic reserve) and Baby No-
Eyes.
Discussion leaders #5:__________________________________________
Week 5
Tues 2/3 Discussion of Grace continues.
Discussion leaders #6:__________________________________________
Book Review: Pacific Studies due in class.
Thurs 2/5 Read Maori poetry in Whetu Moana.
Discussion leaders #7: _________________________________________
Week 6
Tues 2/10 Read Maori music lyrics (handout)
In-class listening to Maori music.
4. Sea of Islands?: Writers in the New Pacific
Thurs 2/12 Read articles and dialogue sections in The Contemporary Pacific 13.2.
Week 7
Tues 2/17 Read Hau’ofa, Tales of the Tikongs.
Discussion leaders #8: _________________________________________
Thurs 2/19 Read Wendt, introduction to Nuanua: Pacific Writing in English Since
1980, and selections from Nuanua.
Discussion leaders #9: _________________________________________
Week 8
Tues 2/24 Read selections from Whetu Moana.
In-class listening to spoken word poetry, CD Terensia.
Thurs 2/26 Read selections from Whetu Moana.
Discussion leaders #10: ________________________________________
Week 9
Tues 3/2 Read Figiel, Where We Once Belonged.
Discussion leaders #11:_________________________________________
Thurs 3/4 Discussion of Figiel continues.
Week 10
Tues 3/9 Presentations on novels read outside of class.
Novel/Play Response due in class.
Thurs 3/11 Presentations continue and final class discussion.
Mon 3/15 Final Response Projects due in my mailbox, 421 Denney, by 3:00 p.m.
TARORIST
Without One’s Roots
One Becomes Ruthless
--The Hawaiian Force