Abstract
These quotations demonstrate both popular media images and the kinds of engaged responses contemporary Pacific Rim women writers have developed to counter cultural stereotypes representing them as sexually pliable, noble savages. This chapter concentrates on women’s writing from Oceania, the Pacific Rim area, looking at colonial history and cultural stereotypes, exploring conditions which enable writing and publication. It considers work by several women, particularly Marjorie Crocombe, Konai Helu Thaman, Momo von Reiche, Jully Sipolo, Teresia Teaiwa, Grace Mare Molisa, and Vanessa Griffen, all of whom deal with issues of cultural identity, the roles and representation of women.
She wears red feathers and a huly huly skirt, she wears red feathers and a huly huly skirt, she lives on just coconuts and fish from the sea, … with love in her heart from me.
(Popular song of the 1940s)
she wears lei around Gauginesque blossoming breasts sweeping brown round and around looping above firm flat belly button peeking over see-thru hula skirt
(not from her island — but what does it hurt?)
… ‘Lovely hula hands’ (this line to be sung to the tune of the popular song which it appears in) always understands make good island wife — for life — no strife
(Tusitala Marsh, ‘Statued [stat you?] Traditions’, 1997, p. 52)
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Balakian, Anna (1962), ‘Influence and Literary Fortune: The Equivocal Junction of Two Methods’, Year Book of Comparative and General Literature, 11.
Buck, Claire (ed.) (1992), The Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature (London: Bloomsbury).
Crocombe, Marjorie (1980), Introduction, in Albert Wendt (ed.), Lali: A Pacific Anthology (Suva: Longam Paul).
Crocombe, Marjorie (1973), see Mana: Annual of Creative Writing, interview (Suva, 1973), p. 12.
Davis, Tom and Davis, Lydia (1955), Doctor to the Islands, in Buck Claire (ed.), Bloomsbury Guide to Women’s Literature (London: Bloomsbury).
Dunlop, Peggy (1985), ‘Samoan Writing: Searching for the Written Fagogo’, in Pacific Writers’ Pacific Islands Communication Journal, 14, 1 (Suva: The University of the South Pacific).
Griffen, Arlene (1997), ‘Women Speak Out in Literature: Pacific and Caribbean Voices’, Wasafiri, 25 (Spring).
Maka’a, Julian and Oxenham, Stephen (1985), ‘Writing in the Solomon Islands: The Voice in the Shadow’, in Pacific Writers’ Pacific Islands Communication Journal, 14, 1 (Suva: The University of the South Pacific).
Maugham, Somerset (1919), The Moon and Sixpence (London: Heinemann).
Maugham, Somerset (1921), The Trembling of a Leaf (London: Heinemann).
Molisa, Grace (1983), Black Stone (Suva: Mana).
Molisa, Grace (1989), ‘Coming of Age’ and ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’, in Black Stone, 11 (Suva: Mana).
Pollard, Alice (1988), in Pacific Women (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific).
Rarua, Kathleen (1988), in Pacific Women (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific).
Sipolo, Jully (1981), Civilised Girl (Suva: The South Pacific Creative Arts Society).
Smith, Bernard (1985; 2nd edn), European Vision and the South Pacific (Melbourne: Oxford University Press; 1st edn, 1960).
Subramani, (1992 [1985]), South Pacific Literature: From Myth to Fabulation (Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific).
Taipo, Arthur (1986), ‘Writing in the Cook Islands’, in Pacific Writers (Suva: University of the South Pacific).
Teaiwa, Teresia (1995), ‘Searching for Nei Nim’anoa’, Searching for Nei Nim’anoa (Fiji: Mana Publications).
Teaiwa, Teresia (1999), ‘Nudity III’, in A. and G. Wisker (eds), Spokes Poetry Magazine, 28.
Thaman, Konai Helu (1974), You, the Choice of my Parents (Suva: Mana Publications).
Thaman, Konai Helu (1981), Langakali (Suva: Mana Publications).
Thaman, Konai Helu (1987), Higano (Fiji: Mana Publications).
Thaman, Konai Helu (1997), Interview with Briar Wood, Wasafiri, 25 (Spring).
Tuivaga, Jessie (1988), Taiamoni Tongamon (ed.), Pacific Women: Roles and Status of Women in Pacific Societies (Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific).
Tusitala Marsh, Selina (1997), ‘Statued (Stat you?) Traditions’, in Wasafiri, 25 (Spring), p. 52.
Van Trease, Howard (1985), in Pacific Writers’ Pacific Islands Communication Journal, 14, 1, pp. 24–9.
Wendt, Albert (ed.) (1980), Lali: A Pacific Anthology (Auckland: Longam Paul).
Copyright information
© 2000 Gina Wisker
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wisker, G. (2000). Oceania — Pacific Rim Writing. In: Post-Colonial and African American Women’s Writing. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-98524-3_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-98524-3_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-72746-1
Online ISBN: 978-0-333-98524-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)