ENGLISH 700

Pacific Poetry


Please note: this is archived course information from 2021 for ENGLISH 700.

Description

"Pacific Poetry" holds the poetry and scholarship of Pacific peoples at its centre. Through the study of two major anthologies of Māori and Pacific writing, this course will:

  • Define, critically contextualise and apply key concepts in the field of Pacific, indigenous and oceanic literary studies, including "aesthetic sovereignty", ”trans-indigenous research methodologies", "Pacific epistemologies", "literary decolonisation" and "bi-languaging". It will build upon key postcolonial concepts covered in ENGLISH 112 (Global Literatures), ENGLISH 204 (Pacific Literature) and compliment ENGLISH 702 (formerly ENGLISH 786 Postcolonial Literature)
  • Identify instances of indigenous literary criticism and employ culturally-specific aesthetics and critical tools of literary appreciation. This will include practical application where you will identify key working metaphors in a poet or group of poets’ work and transform that metaphor into an aesthetic framework through which to read the work in order to examine texts within an indigenous, oceanic and possibly feminist, context
  • Consider the politics of insider/outsider critical positioning
  • Consider the role literature plays in reconfiguring the nature of cultural identities in the Pacific, especially literary challenges to colonial representations of identity in the Pacific
  • Articulate the social, cultural, political and historical contexts of different genres within Pacific poetry and the central arguments surrounding its critical appreciation
  • Close read a poem by identifying key literary and aesthetic techniques according to both indigenous and western literary traditions

This is a text-based class. The anthologies are used as a springboard from which to examine poet’s other works and collections. Timely field trips will extend the learning environment (pertinent Art Gallery exhibitions/poetry readings).

Outcomes

By the end of this course you will be able to:

  • Identify key critical issues and scholarly works in the field of indigenous and Oceanic literary studies
  • Identify key postcolonial concepts relevant to the production and reception of Pacific literature
  • Identify instances of indigenous literary criticism and employ culturally-specific aesthetics and critical tools of literary appreciation
  • Examine texts within an indigenous and Oceanic feminist context
  • Discuss the role literature plays in reconfiguring the nature of cultural identities in the Pacific, especially literary challenges to colonial representations of identity in the Pacific
  • Articulate the social, cultural, political and historical contexts of different genres within Pacific poetry and the central arguments surrounding its critical appreciation
  • Close read a poem by identifying key literary and aesthetic techniques according to both indigenous and western literary traditions
  • Discuss the politics of publication and anthologising in the Pacific
  • Gain a nuanced understanding of the current states of de/colonisation in the Pacific from the perspective of its literature
  • Consider the politics of insider/outsider critical positioning

View the course syllabus

Availability 2021

Not offered in 2021; planned for 2022

Lecturer(s)

Lecturer(s) Dr Selina Tusitala Marsh

Reading/Texts

Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poets in English, eds, Albert Wendt, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (Auckland: AUP, 2010).      

Puna Wai Korero: An Anthology of Maori Poetry in English, eds, Reina Whaitiri and Robert Sullivan (Auckland: AUP, 2014).

Points

ENGLISH 700: 30 points