“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry
This essay will explore the complex relationship between Pacific Islander Literature and the “Blue Humanities,” navigation traditions and canoe aesthetics, and Chamoru migration and diaspora. First, I will chart the history, theory, and praxis of Pacific voyaging traditions; the colonial history of...
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doaj-b9be76e9bcc14961bed290fc092db3bd2020-11-25T03:11:11ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872020-07-019666610.3390/h9030066“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru PoetryCraig Santos Perez0Department of English, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USAThis essay will explore the complex relationship between Pacific Islander Literature and the “Blue Humanities,” navigation traditions and canoe aesthetics, and Chamoru migration and diaspora. First, I will chart the history, theory, and praxis of Pacific voyaging traditions; the colonial history of restricting indigenous mobilities; and the decolonial acts of seafaring revitalization in the Pacific (with a specific focus on Guam). Then, I will examine the representation of seafaring and the ocean-going vessel (the canoe) as powerful symbols of Pacific migration and diasporic cultural identity in the context of what Elizabeth DeLoughrey termed, “narrative maritime legacies” (2007). Lastly, I will conduct a close-reading of the avant-garde poetry collection, <i>A Bell Made of Stones</i> (2013), by Chamoru writer Lehua Taitano. As I will show, Taitano writes about the ocean and navigation in order to address the history and traumas of Chamoru migration and diaspora. In terms of poetic form, I will argue that Taitano’s experimentation with typography and visual poetry embodies Chamoru outrigger design aesthetics and navigational techniques. In the end, I will show how a “Blue Humanities” approach to reading Pacific Islander literature highlights how the “New Oceania” is a profound space of Pacific migration and diasporic identity.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/9/3/66Blue HumanitiesPacific Islander literature |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Craig Santos Perez |
spellingShingle |
Craig Santos Perez “The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry Humanities Blue Humanities Pacific Islander literature |
author_facet |
Craig Santos Perez |
author_sort |
Craig Santos Perez |
title |
“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry |
title_short |
“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry |
title_full |
“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry |
title_fullStr |
“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry |
title_full_unstemmed |
“The Ocean in Us”: Navigating the Blue Humanities and Diasporic Chamoru Poetry |
title_sort |
“the ocean in us”: navigating the blue humanities and diasporic chamoru poetry |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Humanities |
issn |
2076-0787 |
publishDate |
2020-07-01 |
description |
This essay will explore the complex relationship between Pacific Islander Literature and the “Blue Humanities,” navigation traditions and canoe aesthetics, and Chamoru migration and diaspora. First, I will chart the history, theory, and praxis of Pacific voyaging traditions; the colonial history of restricting indigenous mobilities; and the decolonial acts of seafaring revitalization in the Pacific (with a specific focus on Guam). Then, I will examine the representation of seafaring and the ocean-going vessel (the canoe) as powerful symbols of Pacific migration and diasporic cultural identity in the context of what Elizabeth DeLoughrey termed, “narrative maritime legacies” (2007). Lastly, I will conduct a close-reading of the avant-garde poetry collection, <i>A Bell Made of Stones</i> (2013), by Chamoru writer Lehua Taitano. As I will show, Taitano writes about the ocean and navigation in order to address the history and traumas of Chamoru migration and diaspora. In terms of poetic form, I will argue that Taitano’s experimentation with typography and visual poetry embodies Chamoru outrigger design aesthetics and navigational techniques. In the end, I will show how a “Blue Humanities” approach to reading Pacific Islander literature highlights how the “New Oceania” is a profound space of Pacific migration and diasporic identity. |
topic |
Blue Humanities Pacific Islander literature |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/9/3/66 |
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