49 research outputs found
Reimagining Nature in Selected Hawaiian Literature: An Indigenous Ecological Perspective
Get PDFThis study analyzes four selected works of Hawaiian literature, focusing on the refiguration of nature, presenting it as an active and conscious subject. Contrary to Western anthropocentrism, which instrumentalized nature, Hawaiian literature underscores the profound interconnectedness shared between humanity and the more-than-human world. This distinctive environmental imagination permeates the
narratives and rejects Western distinctions between the human and non-human realms by intertwining the supernatural and human agency. The reading of selected Hawaiian literature analyzes how nature is positioned as an active subject with its agency, not merely a passive, static setting. Personification in Hawaiian literature primarily focuses on female figures, Pele as the volcano goddess and various ancestral spirits known as ‘aumakua. This critique of anthropocentrism is deeply entrenched in Hawaiian cultural and spiritual traditions, where gods, goddesses, and ‘aumakua personify various elements and forces within the environment. This reimagining invites us to consider a different environmental imagination, recognizing the active agency of the non-human world. In conclusion, this study highlights how the Native Hawaiians ecological discourse seeks to reorient humanity’s relationship with the natural [email protected] Indriyanto is Lecturer at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Prima Indonesia, Medan City, 20118, Indonesia. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Universitas Gadjah Mada on the topic of postcolonial ecocriticism in Hawai’ian-American literature. His main research interests are analyzing indigenous literature with a postcolonial ecocriticism perspective, primarily focusing on Native Hawaiian literature and the decolonizing discourse of Hawaiian indigene through aloha ‘āina. His other interests lie in the emerging field of eco-narratology, mainly concerned with narrative voices and spatiality in literature, focusing on Asian-American diasporic experiences in Hawaii.Universitas Prima Indonesia, Indonesia; University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, IranAdamson, Joni. “Cosmovisions : Environmental Justice, Transnational American Studies and Indigenous Literature.” Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism, edited by Gred Garrard, Oxford University Press, 2014, pp. 172–87.Armstrong, R. Atlas of Hawai’i. 2nd Editio, University of Hawai’i Department of Geography, 1983.Becket, Jan, and Joseph Singer. Pana O’ahu : Sacred Stones, Sacred Land. University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.Brennert, Alan. Moloka’i. 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University of Hawai’i Press, 2013.Iovino, Serenella, and Serpil Oppermann. “Material Ecocriticism: Materiality, Agency, and Models of Narrativity.” Ecozon@: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, vol. 3, no. 1, 2012, pp. 75–91, https://doi.org/10.37536/ecozona.2012.3.1.452.Jones, Caleb. “For Many Hawaiians, Lava Flows Are a Time to Honor, Reflect.” Spectrumlocalnews.Com, 2022, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/news/2022/12/02/for-many-hawaiians--lava-flows-are-a-time-to-honor--reflect.Kana’iaupuni, Shawn Malia, and Nolan Malone. “This Land Is My Land: The Role of Place in Native Hawaiian Identity.” Hulili : Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, vol. 3, no. 1, 2006, pp. 287–300.Kane, Kawainui. 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University of South Florida, 2014.Luangphinith, Seri. “Hawai’i Literature.” Ethnic American Literature : An Encyclopedia for Students, edited by Emannuel S Nelson, Greenwood, 2015, pp. 219–27.Lyons, Laura E. “From the Indigenous to the Indigent : Homelessness and Settler Colo nialism in Hawai ‘ I.” Studies in Settler Colonialism: Politics, Identity and Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp. 140–52.Machiorlatti, Jennifer A. “Ecocinema, Ecojustice, and Indigenous Worldviews Native and First Nations Media As Cultural Recovery.” Framing the World: Explorations in Ecocriticism and Film, no. 3, 2010, pp. 62–80.Malo, David, and Nathaniel Bright Emerson. Hawaiian Antiquities (Moolelo Hawai’i). Hawaiian Gazette Co., Ltd, 1903.Marland, Pippa. “Ecocriticism.” Literature Compass, vol. 10, no. 11, 2013, pp. 846–68, https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12105.Michener, James A. Hawaii. 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Native And Indigenous Women Of Hawai ’ I : Exploring the Importance Of Indigenous Narratives And Storytelling To Understand Ancestral Knowledge Systems. no. January, University of North Dakota, 2019.Silva, Kalena. “Hawaiian Chant: Dynamic Cultural Link or Atrophied Relic?” The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. 98, no. 1, 1989, pp. 85–90.Swanson, Lori J. “A Feminist Ethic That Binds Us to Mother Earth.” Ethics and the Environment, vol. 20, no. 2, 2015, pp. 83–103, https://doi.org/10.2979/ethicsenviro.20.2.83.Thompson, Paul B. “Agrarian Philosophy and Ecological Ethics.” Science and Engineering Ethics, vol. 14, no. 4, 2008, pp. 527–44, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-008-9094-1.Trask, Haunani-Kay. From a Native Daughter : Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. University of Hawai’i Press, 1993.White, Lynn. “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis.” The Ecocriticism Reader, University of Georgia Press, 1996, pp. 3-14.Williams, Julie Stewart. From the Mountains to the Sea : Early Hawaiian Life. Kamehameha Schools Press, 1997.Williams, Liza Keānuenueokalani, and Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez. “Indigeneity, Sov ereignty, Sustainability and Cultural Tourism: Hosts and Hostages at ‘Iolani Palace, Hawai’i.” Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 25, no. 5, 2017, pp. 668–83, https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2016.1226850.Wyatt, Susan. “Shark Dialogues and Hawai’ian Dreams.” Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, vol. 6, no. 4, 2012, pp. 126–30, https://doi.org/10.1525/jung.2012.6.4.126.44 (1/2024)213
Spatializing Narrative: Postcolonial Spaces of Oswald Andrew Bushnell’s Ka’a’awa
Get PDFThis study explores the representation of space in O.A Bushnell’s Ka’awa in which the seemingly contradictory spatial scene of the urban, the rural, the picturesque and the macabre delineates the complexity of postcolonial spaces. Ka’a’awa foregrounds the journey of Hiram Nihoa through his travel all around O’ahu in the 1850’s. Nihoa’s first-person account provides a vivid avenue for the readers through textual cues delineating spaces as they mentally mapped the slowly unfolding and unfamiliar spaces as his narration progresses. This study is the intersection between environmental/eco-criticism and geo-criticism which focuses on the complexities between spatial referents and their real-world referents as is stated by Tally Jr and Prieto, especially the postcolonial contexts of Hawai’i-West interaction during the second half of the 19th century. The finding posits how the readers familiarize themselves with the picturesque landscape of O’ahu through Nihoa’s evocative narration and how the spatial scene later resurfaces as space connotes death and diseases due to epidemic which defamiliarizes readers from prior spatiality. The spatial scene narrating scene of disease, despair and death highlights the discursive and material condition of Hawai’i as a postcolonial space. Space in Ka’a’awa alludes both toward the referential condition of 1850’s Hawai’i and symbolically represents the decline of the Hawai’ian natives
Resilience and Resistance: Indigenous Agency of Hawai’ian Indigene in Lynn Kalama Nakkim’s Mahele o Maui
Get PDFIn recent years, the emergence of indigenous literature contextualizes the historicity of colonialism and the ensuing resistance. This present study articulates how the Native Hawai’ians articulate their resistance against American domination through the resilience of their cultural heritage and advocates for political changes, as is reflected in Lynn Kalama Nakkim’s Mahele o Maui. The study applied an econarratological perspective which foregrounds the reader's active role in reimagining a different socio-cultural perspective of the natural environment from Mahele’s perspective and engaging with other (non-Western) environmental imagination. The theory of resilience and resistance, as stated by Adamson and Molina, underlines how indigenous Hawai’ian tradition manages to persevere and transform through the Western model of narration, a novel. The study explores how Nakkim’s fiction articulates the indigenous epistemology of Aloha Aina to actively resist American domination with the eventual goal of achieving sovereignty and independence. The finding concludes how Native Hawai’ians’ literature has a similar concern with other indigenous struggles in the world, advocative and politically oriented in outlook, echoing their struggle for the right of self-determination and eventual sovereignty
Positioning agrarianism as a sustainable environmental discourse: Culture, nature and place
Get PDFThis paper examines the concept of agrarianism as a counterpoint to anthropocentric environmental perspectives, utilizing an ecological reading of Richard Powers’ novel, “The Overstory.” Agrarianism challenges the prevailing notion that prioritizes human interests and exploits nature, emphasizing the interconnectedness and equal value of all beings within the natural world. Embracing agrarian principles such as sustainable practices and the significance of agriculture is seen as a more ethical and sustainable approach to human-environment interactions. Reading the novel highlights an agrarian perspective, underlines the need for sustainability, and advocates for a deeper understanding of the relationship between humans and non-human entities. Agrarian principles, emphasizing rural living, sustainability and the value of agriculture, are positioned as a counter-discourse to modernity, especially its reliance on technology and scientific knowledge which detrimentally impact the environment.. Compared to other discussions of agrarianism, the present study emphasizes the use of narrative strategies to heighten readers’ awareness of the intricate relationship between humans and nature, To conclude, this study seeks to foster critical reflection on environmental issues and promote awareness of alternative perspectives and environmental approaches by emphasizing the agrarian viewpoint in the novel and exploring its implications
Ma'i Lepera : Representation of Leprosy in Selected Hawai'ian-American Literature
No full textThis study contextualizes how disease in form of leprosy is represented in literary works by focusing of three novels written by Hawai'ian-American writers. The legacy of leprosy outbreak in Hawai'ian archipelago in the 1800's challenges the popular imagination of Hawai'i as idealized timeless tropical paradise. This study explores how the policy of isolation exiles leprosy patients in isolated island, Moloka'i, segregated from other citizens. Hawai'ians cultural contexts concerning balance (pono), and identity based on familial ties and sense of place is employed to explore how leprosy disrupts Hawai'ian conception of identity. This study also explores the concept of ecological other as theorized by Serpil Oppermann to contextualize the stigma and harassment associated with leprosy of being unclean and contagious. The object of this study are three Hawai'ian-American novels, Hawai'i (1959), Shark Dialogues (1995) and Moloka'i (2004). This study concludes that the representation of leprosy in selected Hawai'ian-American literature contextualizes the social stigma associated toward its sufferers and disrupts the question of identity through erasure of familial history and genealogy. It further posits the possibility of reclaiming genealogy, history and ancestry lost due to leprosy and how the reclamation results in creating hybrid Hawai'ian identity
THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT’S TWO FRIENDS AND ARTURO ARIAS’ TOWARD PATZUN
No full textThis paper compares and contrasts two short stories, Guy De Maupassant’s Two Friends and Arturo Arias’ Toward Patzun. Both stories have the same thematic structure as the harshness and brutality during wartime situation is a similar concern to the aforementioned writers. Although both writers foreground the savagery of war, the different cultural background, nationality, literary tradition cause differences in the way both writer narrate their short stories. While De Maupassant depicts the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Arias squares his narration in the Guatemalan civil war (1960-1996). The differences of canonical status between De Maupassant and Arias is also scrutinized in this paper. While De Maupassant is a household name in Western literary tradition, the popularity of Arias remains obscure. This paper argues that the differences in canonization is linked also with the status of Two Friends in the hypercanon, on the other hand Toward Patzun is located in the countercanon. It is hoped that this paper can contribute toward questioning the privileged status of Western literary works compared to the non-Western author
ARTICULATING THE MARGINALIZED VOICES: SYMBOLISM IN AFRICAN AMERICAN, HISPANIC, AND ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Get PDFThe present study contextualizes how symbolism is employed by writers of ethnically minority in the United States as an avenue of their agency and criticism against the dominant white perspective. The history of American minorities is marred with legacy of racial discrimination and segregation which highlights the inequality of race. Literature as a cultural production captures the experiences of the marginalized and the use of symbolism is intended to transform themes into the field of aesthetics. This study is a qualitative research which is conducted through the post-nationalist American Studies framework in order to focus on the minorities’ experience instead of the Anglo-Saxon outlook. The object of the study is three playscripts written from authors from Mexican-American, African-American and Asian-American to emphasize how discrimination is faced by multi-ethnic. The finding suggests how symbolism in these literary works intends to counter the stereotypical representation of Mexican-American, aligns with the passive resistance of the Civil Right Movement and subvert binary opposition of East and West which exoticizing the East. Keywords : minority literature in the U.S , symbolism, post-nationa
ECOLOGICAL READING ON SELECTED AYURZANA AND YONG SHU HOONG's POEMS
No full textThis paper explores how nature is depicted by two poets of different nationality using ecocriticism. Ecological approach is used as framework to focus more on the connection and relationship between human and their environment and the possible impact on the disruption of human-nature relationship. People living in different environment will have different reception toward their surroundings. The aim of this paper is to explore how both poets describe nature in their selected works. Ayurzana and Yong ShuHoong represent two poets exposed to different environment;hence, this paper seeks to present how different Ayurzana who lives in a rural area portray his surrounding compared with Hoong as an urban dweller. As a native Mongolian, Ayurzana explores the close connection between Mongolian people and nature. On the other hand, Hoong’s poetry elaborates life in cities and people that become detached from the natural environment. By analyzing two poets from different living conditions, this paper acknowledges that ecological issue might differ from one region to another
HAWAIIS ECOLOGICAL IMPERIALISM: POSTCOLONIAL ECOCRITICISM READING ON KIANA DAVENPORTS SHARK DIALOGUES
Get PDFRecent studies of postcolonialism have explored the interconnection between postcolonial and environmental/eco-criticism. Studies from Huggan (2004), Nixon (2005), Cilano and DeLoughrey (2007) counter the underlying assumption that these criticisms stand in opposition toward each other by pointing out the overlapping areas of interest between postcolonial and ecocriticism and the complementary aspect of these two criticisms (Buell, 2011). Postcolonial ecocriticism, as theorized by Huggan and Tiffin (2010) and DeLoughrey and Handley (2011) asserts the intertwined correlation between environmental degradation and the marginalization of the minority/indigenous ethic groups which inhabit a particular place. The underlying capitalist and mechanistic ideologies in which nature is perceived only of their intrinsic values and usefulness toward (Western) humans illustrates total disregard to the original owner of the colonized land, the indigenous people. This perspective is underlined by Serpil Oppermanns (2007) concept of ecological imperialism to underline the anthropocentric perspective that legitimate Western domination toward the colonies natural resources. Although discussion of postcolonial ecocriticism has encompassed diverse regions such as Caribbean, Africa and Asia, scant attention has been given toward Pacific archipelago especially Hawaii. Through reading on Kiana Davenports Shark Dialogues (1994), this paper explores how American colonialism results in ecological imperialism in this island chain. It is hoped that this analysis can contribute toward enriching the discussion on postcolonial ecocriticism
AN ECOLINGUISTICS ANALYSIS OF THE WIND GOURD OF LA’AMAOMAO
Get PDFThis study foregrounds the Native Hawai’ians’ interconnection between culture and nature through ecolinguistic analysis of the Wind Gourd of La’amaomao. The language use in this Hawai’ian folktale emphasizes the reverence Hawai’ian people have toward their environment based on familial kinship. The analysis mainly focuses on two aspects of language use, based on Stibbe’s theory of ecolinguistic, ideology/discourse and evaluation/appraisal. The study also posits the ecosophy/ecological philosophy derived from the text in line with the current state of environmental crisis. The study argues that the discourse employed in the text is positive, based on recognizing the need of sustainability. The positive discourse is also reflected through close emotional connection between people and place which is reflected in wind naming pattern and Hawai’ian place names. Secondly, nature is also appraised positively as seen in the celebratory tone and vocabulary used. The study concludes that alternative way of perceiving the environment, as seen from the reading of the Wind Gourd of La’amaomao should be considered as a critique toward Western anthropocentrism.
