This groundbreaking study of a little-explored branch of American
literature both chronicles and reinterprets the variety of patterns
found within Hawaii's pastoral and heroic literary traditions, and
is unprecedented in its scope and theme. As a literary history, it
covers two centuries of Hawaii's culture since the arrival of
Captain James Cookin 1778. Its approach is multicultural,
representing the spectrum of native Hawaiian, colonial, tourist,
and polyethnic local literatures. Explicit historical, social,
political, and linguistic context of Hawaii, as well as literary
theory, inform Stephen Sumida's analyses and explications of texts,
which in turn reinterpret the nonfictional contexts themselves.
These "texts" include poems, song lyrics, novels and short fiction,
drama and oral traditions that epitomize cultural milieus and
sensibilities. Hawaii's rich literary tradition begins with ancient
Polynesian chant and encompasses the compelling novels of O.A.
Bushnell, Shelley Ota, Kazuo Miyamoto, Milton Marayama, and John
Dominis Holt; the stories of Patsy Saiki and Darrell Lum; the
dramas of Aldyth Morris; the poetry of Cathy Song, Erick Chock,
Jody Manabe, Wing Tek Lum, and others of the contemporary "Bamboo
Ridge" group; Hawaiian songs and poetry, or mele; and works written
by visitors from outside the islands, such as the journals of
Captain Cook and the prose fiction of Herman Melville, James
Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, and James Michener. Sumida discusses
the renewed enthusiasm for native Hawaiian culture and the
controversies over Hawaii's vernacular pidgins and creoles. His
achievement in developing a functional and accessible critical and
intellectual framework for analyzing this diverse material is
remarkable, and his engaging and perceptive analysis of these works
invites the reader to explore further in the literature itself and
to reconsider the present and future direction of Hawaii's writers.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
