ENGL 165LP: |
Topics in Literature
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Literature of the Pacific |
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| Spring 2009 |
| Instructor: Teresa Shewry |
| Meets on: TR 12:30 PM - 1:45 PM GIRV 1112 |
| Prerequisites: Writing 2, 50, or 109; English 10; or upper-division standing |
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| Satisfies a GE area G and a Writing requirement |
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| May be repeated for credit provided the letter designations are different, but only 8 units may be applied to the English major. |
Voluminous blue expanses of ocean, tropical beaches and palm trees, lost treasures and pirates, cannibals, remote rainforests -- the Pacific has been tirelessly represented in images and stories from tourism and travel writing, the mass media, literature, and film. In this course we will consider alternative forms of storytelling in the Pacific, and how they interact with mass circulated imaginations of this place. We will begin with Herman Melville’s Typee, which we will read alongside viewings of episodes of the TV series Lost. We will then proceed into the deep ocean to engage with poetry and film about underwater ecologies. Surfacing in the plantation ecologies of Hawai‘i, we will read Milton Muruyama’s All I Asking for is My Body, before drifting south to consider issues of tourism and development in Epeli Hau‘ofa’s novel Kisses in the Nederends. Finally, we will come to Aotearoa/New Zealand, where we will read Patricia Grace’s novel Potiki alongside extracts from the Lord of the Rings films. Along the way, we will discuss the ways that these texts address issues of colonialism, history and memory, gender, development, identity, and environment. |
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