230581 Talk Haole or Talk Local: Hawai'ian Creole Enlglish in Literature and Film (S) (SoSe 2015)

"Standard english is one oxymoron, english by nature isn’t standard. If you travel to diff’rent parts of da country, eh-rybody’s english going be lil’lo bit diff’rent...Dis standard ting is jus one artificial construck invented by man. Pidgin acknowledges da reality of language. In Pidgin we can look beyond correck-incorreck in terms of grammar, spelling, pronunciation, and focus on da content. Pidgin breaks down da hierarchies and instead of dismissing based on superficialities, you take da time to undahstand and get to know wea da person is coming from." --Tonouchi

Lee A. Tonouchi, or da Pidgin Guerrilla, is an educator, writer and lecturer known throughout Hawai’i as a strong advocate of the local vernacular with a strict, personal adherence to speaking and writing in what linguists have termed Hawai’i Creole English and whose speakers refer to it as Pidgin. He is quoted as saying that he finished his master’s thesis and all research papers in this way (“for ironically get my master’s in english”) and even writes letters of recommendation for his students in HCE. The excerpt above is from his collection of short stories, da word, which is written almost entirely in HCE and was distributed by Bamboo Ridge Press, a Honolulu-based publishing house which supports the appreciation, understanding, and creation of literary, visual, or performing arts by, for, or about Hawai’i’s people. This includes HCE-language literature. As Tonouchi’s nickname suggests, the open use and practice of actively engaging students with HCE in a formal educational setting with books such as those published by Bamboo Ridge has been and continues to be perceived controversially in Hawai'i.

This course will cover a linguistic overview of the features of Hawai'ian Creole English, and we will explore a selection of works by different authors and filmmakers, all of whom, in their own ways, make use of Hawai'ian Creole English. These works will include novels, short stories, critical essays, feature-length and short films. The focus will be put on analyses and group discussions of these works.

Students can obtain up to 3 credit points and a grade or a Studienleistung. Detailed participation requirements etc. will be announced in the first session.

Required Reading

Readings will be available on-line