Oral Traditions, Folklore, and Cultural Studies

“Oral traditions” and “folklore” vitally connect us with the imaginations and histories of “the folk”—often ordinary men and women who created and continue to create our world—and substantially form our sense of belonging or not to ethnic, national, gendered, professional and other groups. Oral narratives and folklore include cosmogonies, folktales and fairy tales, legends, epics, Hawaiian wahi pana, ghost stories, jokes, ballads, chants, proverbs or wise sayings, and mythologies. And yet, “oral traditions” and “folklore” are not coterminous. Oral traditions function socially as popular history and literature, depending on their specific cultural and socio-historical location. Folklore—a concept and term that was introduced into the English language in 1848—includes non-verbal traditions such as festivals, foodways, and ethnic dance, performance, and theater as well as verbal expressions of popular history and literature.

Disciplines such as folklore studies, literary studies, indigenous studies, gender studies, composition, history, and cultural history ask different questions of “oral narratives” and “folklore,” but consider them as forms of knowledge and forms of art. Whether the focus is on the cultural production of women, indigenous peoples, the state, young adults, or diasporic groups, the adaptation and translation of oral narratives and folklore across cultures and media—including film and the internet—is an increasingly popular focus for scholars in a range of disciplines.

Bringing a “cultural studies” perspective to the study of oral traditions and folklore historicizes questions of power and transmission and offers a located perspective that interrogates how oral traditions in Hawai‘i and Oceania have, for instance, been shaped by colonialism, as well as by electronic technologies, and how indigenous peoples are re-creating them today.

Faculty and Areas of Interest

Cristina Bacchilega. Folktales and fairy tales; gender and fairy tales; folklore and literature; folkloristics and colonialism; Hawaiian mo‘olelo in translation

Steven Curry. Children’s literature; folklore; myth and ritual; existentialism; comparative psychologies and religions; modern poetry

Jim Henry. Composition studies; performance; ethnography and auto-ethnography

Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui. Children‘s literature; Hawaiian mo‘olelo, including folklore, mythology, and oral tradition; comparative Oceanic folklore

Ruth Y. Hsu. Asian American and post-colonial literatures; diaspora studies; American ethnic literatures

Kristin McAndrews. Folklore in relationship to literature; oral narrative; culture and cuisine; humor; gender and tourism

Caroline Sinavaiana. Comparative Oceanic folklore: legend, myth, and ritual clowning performance; folklore and literature; folkloristics and colonialism; digital storytelling and folk performance as community-building

Robert Sullivan. Maori and Polynesian mythology; cultural memory across a range of disciplines (library and information science, psychology, Matauranga Maori, creative writing, history, political studies, anthropology, cultural geography, contemporary and traditional arts)

Cynthia Ward. Orality and performance; West African/African diasporic oral and popular traditions; comparative visual culture

Relevant undergraduate courses offered in the English Department:

ENG 100 Composition I (3) Introduction to the rhetorical, conceptual and stylistic demands of writing at the university level; instruction in composing processes, search strategies, and writing from sources. FW

Several sections of this Foundation course are taught with a focus on ethnography and/or folklore. Some sections include fieldwork.

ENG 270-273 courses fulfill the UH Manoa General Education Diversification in Literatures (DL) requirement. Credits for these courses are considered “non-introductory.” A significant portion of class time is dedicated to writing instruction, and the courses require a minimum of 4,000 words of graded writing. The ENG 270-273 series has recently included “Magical Worlds,” “Maori Literature and Culture,” and “Myth in Literature.”

ENG 370 Ethnic Literature of Hawai‘i (3) Writings of various ethnic groups in Hawai‘i, ancient to contemporary. Songs, stories, poetry, fiction, essays that illustrate the social history of Hawai‘i. (Cross-listed as ES 370) DL

ENG 371 Literature of the Pacific (3) Basic concepts and representative texts for the study of the literature of the Pacific, including Pacific voyagers and contemporary writings in English by Pacific Islanders. (Cross-listed as PACS 371) DL

ENG 372 Asian American Literature (3). Basic concepts and representative texts for the study of Asian American lliterature by writers from a variety of backgrounds. DL (cross-listed as ES 372) Some sections include use of myths, legends, other oral narratives, and their adaptations in film and drama.

ENG 374 Race, Ethnicity and Literature (3). Basic concepts and representative texts for the study of race and ethnicity as the basis for literary inquiry. DL Some sections include use of myths, legends, other oral narratives, and their adaptations in film and drama.

ENG 380 Folklore and Oral Tradition (3) Basic concepts and representative texts for the study of folktales, legends, ballads and other folklore genres in various cultures; consideration given to folklore/literature relationships. DL

ENG 385 Fairy Tales and Their Adaptations (3) Comparative analysis of selected tales of magic and their adaptations across history, cultures and media such as book illustration and film. DL

ENG 412 Nonfiction Writing (3) Workshop analysis of nonfiction as a literary form. DA Some sections include of this workshop in creative non-fiction incorporate a research interest in collective and individual memory as expressed through creative intersections with mythology.

ENG 480 Studies in Literature and Folklore (3) Intensive study of selected problems, issues, traditions, or genres in folklore and oral traditions and their performance and transformations within specific social and cultural contexts. Repeatable one time. DL
Other recent 400-level courses have included “Voodoo and Literature” (English 472, Spring 2008), “Women Heroes in Polynesian Mythology and Literature (English 470/492, Spring 2007).

Relevant graduate courses in the English Department:

ENG 625 (Alpha) Theories and Methods (3) Required course in the MA student’s area of concentration. (B) theories and methods of literary study; (C) introduction to composition and rhetoric; (D) foundations of creative writing; (E) theories in cultural studies. Repeatable in different alphas. Spring only.

ENG 770 Seminar in Cultural Studies in Asia/Pacific (3) Intensive study of selected issues in cultural studies in Asia and the Pacific; topics to be announced. Repeatable one time. Examples: “From Speaking to writing in Oceanic Literatures and Film” and “Pacific Literature: Oral to Written”

ENG 772 Seminar in Literatures of Hawaii (3) Introduction to comparative literature; relationship of Hawaiian to other literatures; sources and influences. Repeatable one time.

ENG 775 Seminar in Cultural Studies (3) Intensive study of selected issues in cultural studies and cultural and social theory; topics to be announced. Repeatable one time.
ENG 780 (Alpha) Seminar in Comparative Literature (3) Introduction to comparative literature; relationship of English to other literatures; sources and influences. (B) African lit. and literary theory; (F) folklore and literature; (G) theory/practice of poetry; (H) contemporary drama; (I) mythic method; (J) postmodern fiction; (M) modernism; (N) colonial/postcolonial; (P) postmodernism and postcolonialism; (W) medieval women writers. Repeatable one time for different alphas. Examples of 780F: “Legendary Hawai‘i and the Politics of Place” and “Fairy Tales Transformed.”

(last revised 11/12/07)