Island Literature: from paradise to the postcolonial (Ellis, 1997)

Islands Literature: From Paradise to the Postcolonial

English 356, Fall 1997

Dr. Juniper Ellis

English Department

Loyola College in Maryland

Baltimore MD 21210

JEllis@mailgate.loyola.edu

Office Hours: MWF 9-11, and by appointment

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Cristina Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban

Vilsoni Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise

Keri Hulme, The Bone People

Earl Lovelace, The Dragon Can't Dance

Herman Melville, Typee

V. S. Naipaul, Miguel Street

Derek Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays

Albert Wendt, Sons for the Return Home

Library Reserve Readings, indicated by **

PROPOSED SCHEDULE:

Sep.	3	Introduction
	5	Melville, Typee
	8	Melville, Typee
	10	Melville, Typee
	12	*Darwin, from The Voyage of the Beagle "Tahiti and New Zealand*." New York: Bantam. 1972
		*Robert Davie's Account of Preston's Voyage, in English Privateering Voyages to the West Indies*. Ed, Kenneth Andrews. Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1959. Pp 377-398.
	15	*Buzzacott, from Mission Life in the Islands of the Pacific*, 1866. Rpt 1985, Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific. Pp 25-60.
		*Maretu, from Cannibals and Converts*. 1871. Translated by Marjorie Tuainekore Crocombe. Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, USP, 1983.
	17	**Columbus, "The Discovered Islands" Conquest of Eden 1493-1515. Michael Paiewonsky. Rome: MAPes MONDe, 1991. Pp 9-41.
		*"Introduction" and Chapters 1 and 2 from The Hart Sisters: Early African Caribbean Writers, Evengelicals, and Radicals.* Ed, Moira Ferguson. Lincoln: U of Nebraska Press, 1993.
	19	Wendt, Sons for the Return Home
	22	Wendt, Sons for the Return Home
	24	Wendt, Sons for the Return Home
	26	*Wendt, "Towards a New Oceania." Mana Review* 1,1 (1976), pp 49-60. Reprinted in Paul Sharrad, ed, Readings in Pacific Literature. Wollongong, Australia: U of Wollongong and New Literatures Research Centre, 1993. Pp 9-19.
	29	*Introduction and Chapter 1 from The Empire Writes Back,* by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin. London and New York: Routledge, 1989.
Oct.	1	Hulme, The Bone People
	3	Hulme, The Bone People
	6	Hulme, The Bone People
	8	Hulme, The Bone People
	10	Paper Workshop
	13	PAPER #1 DUE; Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise
	15	Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise
	17	Mid-Semester Holiday
	20	Hereniko, Last Virgin in Paradise
	22	MID-SEMESTER EXAM
	24	I is a Long Memoried Woman (Video)
	27	Walcott, "What the Twilight Says: An Overture"
	29	Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain
	31	Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain
Nov.	3	Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain
	5	Walcott, Dream on Monkey Mountain
	7	Lovelace, Dragon Can't Dance
	10	Lovelace, Dragon Can't Dance
	12	Lovelace, Dragon Can't Dance
	14	Lovelace, Dragon Can't Dance
	17	Naipaul, Miguel Street
	19	Naipaul, Miguel Street
	21	Naipaul, Miguel Street
		FALL BREAK
Dec.	1	Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban
	3	Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban
	5	Garcia, Dreaming in Cuban
	8	Paper Workshop
	10	PAPER #2 DUE; Review for Final

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

This course pursues the perennial inquiry into the poetics and politics of literature, focusing on the island literatures of the Caribbean and the South Pacific. Our readings include a brief examination of island narratives written by British and U.S. explorers, traders, and missionaries from the early modern period to the present. Accounts by nineteenth-century Pacific Islands and Caribbean missionaries further establish the historical and cultural bases of the twentieth-century literature that will be our primary focus. We will examine these writers' use of both oral and written forms, by way of considering island aesthetics and the island as a cultural cross-roads.

I will expect you to develop, over the course of the semester, analyses of the ways writers' formal techniques relate to larger cultural and critical issues. As a result, you will be expected to read and think about the material before each class, and present your ideas in short papers, class discussions, weekly e-mail discussions, one ten-minute oral presentation, and two seven-page papers (standard fonts and one-inch margins on all papers, please). You are required to meet with me during the week prior to your presentation. Additionally, I encourage you to meet with me for individual writing conferences (do not wait until the day before the paper is due). In-class writing workshops will allow you to benefit from others' suggestions as well, when you go over papers or working drafts in a small group. Unannounced quizzes on the readings, as well as a mid-semester exam and a final exam, will help ensure that you keep up and allow you to make connections between the readings. I am happy to talk with you at any point about the readings or about your writing. If you cannot make my office hours I would be glad to arrange another appointment.

Attendance and participation are essential and will affect your grade, which will be figured as follows:

Papers 40%

Oral presentation 10%

Weekly contributions to e-mail discussion 10%

Class discussion, attendance, unannounced reading quizzes 20%

Mid-sem and Final 20%

You are allowed three excused absences and you are responsible for any material covered or assigned during your absence. Your final grade will be dropped as much as a whole letter grade for each absence over three. Please do not be late to class. Papers are due on or before the date indicated, and must be turned in at the beginning of the class. Late papers will be penalized (one-third of a grade for each day late, for example, from a B to a B-). To avoid plagiarism, all quotations and paraphrased ideas from other sources must be cited, in accordance with the Honor Code. Any violation of the Honor Code will result in a failing grade. If you have any questions, please see me.

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