Part IV : Revisiting oceanic archives, rethinking transnational American studies : next steps, oceanic communities, and transpacific ecopoetics -- Oceania as peril and promise : towards theorizing a worlded vision of transpacific ecopoetics / Rob Wilson. Spanish Manila : a transpacific maritime enterprise and America's first Chinatown / Evelyn Hu-DeHart -- Residing in "south-eastern Asia" of the Antebellum United States : Reverend David Abeel and the world geography of American print evangelism and commerce / Kendall Johnson -- Part II : Oceanic archives and the transterritorial turn : constituting the "public," genealogizing colonial and indigenous translations -- "Thank God for the maladjusted" : the transterritorial turn towards the Chamorro poetry of Guåhan (Guam) / Craig Santos Perez -- Land, history, and the law : constituting the "public" through environmentalism and annexation / Susan Y. Najita -- Genealogizing colonial and indigenous translations and publications of the Kumulipo / Brandy Nālani McDougall -- Part III : Remapping transpacific studies : oceanic archives of Imperialim/s, transpacific imagination, and memories of murder -- The open ocean for interimperial collaboration : scientists' networks across and in the Pacific Ocean in the 1920s / Tmoko Akami -- Maxine Hong Kingston's transpacific imagination : from the talk story of the "No-Name Woman" to the Book of Peace / Yuan Shu -- Memories of murder : the other Korean War (in Viet Nam) / Viet Thanh Nguyen -- Part IV : Revisiting oceanic archives, rethinking transnational American studies : next steps, oceanic communities, and transpacific ecopoetics -- Transnational American studies : next steps? / Shelley Fisher Fishkin -- Recalling oceanic communities : the transnational theater of John Kneubuhl and Victoria Nalani Kenubhul / Otto Heim -- Oceania as peril and promise : towards theorizing a worlded vision of transpacific ecopoetics / Rob Wilson.
Summary:
The field of transnational American studies is going through a paradigm shift from the transatlantic to the transpacific. This volume demonstrates a critical method of engaging the Asian Pacific: the chapters present alternative narratives that negotiate American dominance and exceptionalism by analyzing the experiences of Asians and Pacific Islanders from the vast region, including those from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Hawaii, Guam, and other archipelagos. Contributors make use of materials from "oceanic archives," retrieving what has seemingly been lost, forgotten, or downplayed inside and outside state-bound archives, state legal preoccupations, and state prioritized projects. The result is the recovery of indigenous epistemologies, which enables scholars to go beyond US-based sources and legitimates third-world knowledge production and dissemination. Surprising findings and unexpected perspectives abound in this work. Minnan traders from southern China are identified as the agents who connected the Indian Ocean with the Pacific, making the Manila Galleon trade in the sixteenth century the first completely global commercial enterprise. The Chamorro poetry of Guam gives a view of America from beyond its national borders and articulates the cultural pride of the Chamorro against US colonialism and imperialism. The continuing distortion of indigenous claims to the sovereignty of Hawaii is analyzed through a reading of the most widely circulated English translation of the creation myth, Kumulipo. There is also a critique of the Korean involvement in the American War in Vietnam, which was informed and shaped by Korean economy and politics in a global context. By investigating the transpacific as moments of military, cultural, and geopolitical contentions, this timely collection charts the reach and possibilities of the latest developments in the most dynamic form of transnational American studies.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.