ENG 381: Whose Paradise? Claimed and Reclaimed Hawai'i in Literature and Film

The Mark Twain Annual. 2022, Vol. 20, pg 53-69
The December 1872 death of Hawaiian monarch Kamehameha V spurred renewed interest among U.S. citizens and politicians alike in the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands. To satisfy the public’s increased curiosity about Hawai‘i, in January 1873 the New York Tribune sought testimony in the form of two letters from a well-known expert on the islands: Mark Twain, who had gained nationwide fame based his popular comic lecture “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands,” which he delivered across the United States and abroad between 1866 and 1873.

The Mark Twain Annual. 2019, Vol. 17, No. 1, pg 159-172
This article traces the evolution of Mark Twain's early travel writing by comparing intersections between recorded travel and nature writing in Twain's 1866 letters for the Sacramento Union and his 1872 full-length book about the America West, Roughing It. In his twenty-five published letters, Twain critiques past travel guides and histories that distract visitors--and by extension readers--from what is in front of them, forcing their attention away from the reality of the people and places they encounter. In Twain's first full-length travel account, 1869's The Innocents Abroad, this critique is more fully realized, as Twain articulates an even stronger lament against tour guides and books that script a travelers' experiences with new spaces.

Western American Literature. Summer 1972, Vol. 7, No. 2, pg 101-110
The far western frontier of Hawaii and the islands of the Pacific
provided the master of the Snark many fertile sources for his storytelling. In these exotic seas and fabled islands, Jack London found
a new world to continue his exploration of the mysteries by which
man becomes “a member of the kingly species that has mastered
matter and the brutes and lorded it over creation.” One of the
most memorable of these Pacific sources for London was the awesome spectable of Waikiki’s giant surf, called the Kanaka.

Komparatistik online. Dec 2024, Vol. 2013, pg 83-93
Ever since the European discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain James Cook in 1778, this island state has been shamelessly exploited economically and reimagined for a wide, mainly white, audience in the media. The island state continues to occupy a unique place in public consciousness, evoking escapist fantasies of dazzling long, sandy beaches, spectacular sunsets, swaying palm trees, and beautiful hula dancers as well as skilled surfers enjoying perfect waves. Numerous novels, TV series, and movies have helped to foster this positive image, at the same time suppressing the dark side of colonial Hawaiian history in favor of a more convenient paradise image.

Sociological Forum. Jun 2023, Vol. 38 Issue 2, pg 510-531
Racial politics in animated films has long been an important topic for scholars, but racial diversity in the casting of voice actors for animated films has been understudied. This article examines patterns in voice actor casting among 850 characters from 170 animated films released from 1989 to 2019.

Victorian Literature and Culture. 2015, Vol. 43, No. 2, pg 357-370
Nineteenth-century male European travel writers sometimes romanticize their destinations and dream they have arrived in untouched lands. The Hawaii Isabella Bird visited, however, was not an idyllic land, forgotten by time. Early in the nineteenth century, steamships crossed the Pacific, carrying goods and people from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Japan. The trade in sandalwood and fur brought many foreign steamships into Hawaii (Kuykendall 15). It was not uncommon for American missionaries to arrive in Hawaii via whaling ships that stopped in Hawaii (Kuykendall 16, 41). Hawaii, with its position between mainland America and Asia, was a valuable and strategic piece of property. Isabella Bird Bishop's 1875 travel memoir The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs, and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands comments on the political situation the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) faced in the nineteenth century.

Marvels & Tales. 2016, Vol. 30 No. 1, pg 93-110.
The article offers information on the tale of Ko'olau and Kaleimanu, who fled into the rugged valley of Kalalau, Hawaii to escape being separated at the hands of the provisional government in 1893 when they were diagnosed with Hansen's disease. Topics discussed include sending police and military equipped with a howitzer to find them; resistance by family through Ko'olau's marksmanship and their knowledge of the land; and retelling of the story of Ko'olau's ancestor.