Guided by contemporary writers who call these islands home, we'll get to know the poetry, stories, essays and histories of the Pacific and Atlantic regions. We'll begin by listening to New Pacific Islander Poets (writers who are Samoan, Chamorro, Tahitian, and Maori, among others); we'll close with Kamapua'a-a being who could appear as a hog or as a human-from the Hawaiian creation story, The Kumulipo. In between, we'll consider a short story set near an abandoned nuclear waste site in the Marshall Island and a comic which shows us the ways in which a Bathysphere dive off the shore of Bermuda made history. We'll learn why eternal trickster figures like Etao in the Marshall Islands or Pig-God Kamapua'a in Hawaii remain essential to the literature and lives of Pacific peoples. Guest speakers engaged in research connected to islands will talk with us about mapping and storytelling. We'll pursue the pleasures, ideas, and formal strategies of literature; we will strengthen our abilities to think critically and write clearly. Readings are chosen to stimulate discussion and to present both models and inspiration for us to develop our own writing. Although writing and reading are the main emphases, attention will also be given to the research skills necessary for successful academic writing. We'll create three essays: a literary essay, an interpretive essay, and a hybrid essay. We'll engage in peer response sessions as we revise our drafts and each student will have an individual conference with the instructor. The course format will include discussion, and critical and creative thinking, writing, and viewing activities. At least once during the semester, each student (as part of a pair or trio) will lead class discussion on an essay, book chapter, poem, story or visual image and word pairing. Select contextual readings and viewings will focus on the ongoing legacy of colonialism and nuclear testing in some ocean regions; swell science and celestial navigation; hula; and orature, the oral art that has carried myths and legends for thousands of years, at once preserving cultures, and entertaining and educating listeners, ourselves among them.

Visit Workday to view this information.