History 288: Survey of Pacific Islands History	FALL 2009
Instructor: Colette Higgins

WRITING PROJECT

(Storytelling as History)

Understanding Self & Community

Written Communication

Critical Thinking

Overview

Unlike typical history textbooks or scholarly articles, stories, often in the form of novels and movies, have the potential of viacariously transporting modern students to a specific time and place with "true" characters confronting "real" dilemmas. How do stories compare to scholarly articles or history textbooks when it comes to understanding the human condition, cultural nuances, and historical events? By the time you complete this project you will have read four articles and five stories, and watched two movies. The ultimate goal is to understand the value of storytelling when trying to make sense of the past.

Reading Schedule

Before Part I is due you should have read the following two articles and one book, plus watched a movie

• A Past to Remember by Epeli Hau'ofa
• Indigenous Knowledge and Academic Imperialism by Vilsoni Hereniko
• Tales of the Tikongs by Epeli Hau'ofa
• Whale Rider based on a book by Witi Ihimaera

Before Part II is due you should have read another book, plus two more articles

• Potiki by Patricia Grace
• Constructing "Pacific" Peoples by Bernard Smith
• Colonialism's Daughters: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Western Perceptions of Hawaiian Women by Karina Kahananui Green

Before Part III is due you should have read three more books, plus watched another movie

• Ka'a'awa: A Novel About Hawaii in the 1850s by O.A. Bushnell
• Picture Bride a film by Kayo Hatta
• All I Asking for is My Body by Milton Murayama
• Melal: A Novel of the Pacific by Robert Barclay

Three Part Writing Process (worth 150 points total)

Part I (25 points) In this exploratory paper you will explore your thoughts on the value of articles compared to the strengths of storytelling. What did you gain from the two scholarly articles you read? Did Tales of the Tikong and Whale Rider help you better comprehend any of the issues raised in the articles? This is an informal paper that resembles a diary or journal entry which encourages you to discover your thoughts by “talking to self.” Don’t worry about grammar, spelling, and organization for this part. Format: one side of a sheet of paper, single spaced, one inch margins, about 300-500 words.* Late papers will not be accepted. Due: Friday, September 18th

Part II (50 points) In this letter to an historian you will discuss how outsiders perceive the islanders they meet.  Historians tend to value the written word, so those early documents describing the Pacific islanders are often given great weight. How accurate are those descriptions? Be mindful of the preconceived notions that these travellers may have had even before they met the natives. Is it possible for someone who is from that modern day island culture to have a better understanding of their ancestors based on an oral tradition than those early visitors who actually interacted with them and left written records? You will be graded on organization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Format: double spaced, one inch margins, about 500-800 words.* Late papers will not be accepted. Due: Wednesday, October 21st

Part III (worth 75 points) Write an essay, a dialogue, or a short story. In this final paper you will demonstrate an understanding of how articles and stories can complement each other when studying about the past.

• If you choose to write a comparative essay, you will compare and contrast the two types of writing: scholarly writing and storytelling. Beyond a comparison of writing styles, you should consider how well each type of writing helps the reader understand the human condition, cultural nuances, and historical events.
• If you choose to write a dialogue, you will need to identify two people who will have an imagined conversation. It will read much like a script for a play, or a transcript of an interview. Your two people could be authors you've read, characters from the books we've read, or actual historical people. The benefit of the dialogue format is that you don't have to come to a conclusion, instead you need to focus on defining two distinct points of view.
• If you choose to write a short story, you will be telling a story. You could describe behaviors, thoughts, and events of a particular person in a specific place and time. It might help to build your story around an actual historical event. This format also provides the option of a narrator's voice (i.e. someone telling the story, but not necessarily involved in it).

In your Part III, you should draw on the lessons learned in Parts 1 & 2. You will be graded on organization, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. You must also resubmit your graded Parts 1 & 2 (all in a non-plastic folder). Format: double spaced with a one inch margin; the estimated length is 800-1000 words, although it is understood that the dialogue or short story may be substantially longer for scene setting reasons.* Late papers will be accepted, but there will be a five-point penalty for each class day that a paper is late. Due: Wednesday, November 25th

*Please identify the font & provide a word count at the end of each part.

(e.g. Times New Roman, 778 words)