'Local' Hawaiʻi Narratives Leanne Day a Dissertation
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Empire’s Imagination: Race, Settler Colonialism, and Indigeneity in ‘Local’ Hawaiʻi Narratives Leanne Day A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2017 Reading Committee: Chandan Reddy, Chair Alys Weinbaum Moon-Ho Jung Program Authorized to Offer Degree: English © Copyright 2017 Leanne P. Day University of Washington Abstract Empire’s Imagination: Race, Settler Colonialism, and Indigeneity in ‘Local’ Hawaiʻi Narratives Leanne Day Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Associate Professor Chandan Reddy Department of English My dissertation, “Empire’s Imagination: Race, Settler Colonialism, and Indigeneity in ʻLocal’ Hawaiʻi Narratives,” addresses the history of U.S. empire in Hawaiʻi, arguing that empire persists into the present through the structuring of contemporary literary representations of Asian migrants and Kanaka Maoli, the Indigenous population. This project intervenes into postcolonial studies, American studies, and ethnic studies as I rely on the optic of U.S. empire to reveal the concurrent processes of Asian and Indigenous racialization historically and in cultural memory. Through a comparative approach to Asian American studies and Indigenous studies, I demonstrate how Hawaiʻi operates as an opportunity to reckon with the determinative force of U.S. empire in the imaginative realm of aesthetic production. Contrary to the belief that contemporary literature’s imaginative force can transcend or repair the violence of U.S. empire restoring voice to those whom empire violated, I theorize the desire for literary representation as a legacy of empire. Furthermore, I argue for a more contradictory understanding of contemporary literature, one in which the history of U.S. empire remains coercive and determinative. By examining narratives about and by Hawaiʻi based writers, commonly referred to as “local” writing, I argue that “local” writing often functions as a “resolution” to the past. While it makes visible the history of empire through the stories it tells, “local” writing often positions itself as evidence of contemporary Hawaiʻi as a multicultural paradise of universal belonging. Yet, I demonstrate how “local” writing can only “resolve” the violence of empire by perpetuating the erasure of Kanaka Maoli colonization in the present. I argue the genre of “local” writing both critiques and perpetuates the violence of Indigenous dispossession and liberal racial formation. This leads me to also argue for the limitations of literary narrative to reconcile or resist the violences of U.S. empire. Thus, “local” writing produces Asian migrants as “local” subjects, substitutes for Kanaka Maoli, in order to maintain U.S. settler colonial hegemony. My dissertation examines specific flashpoints of U.S. empire in Hawaiʻi in the 19th and 20th century with post-2000 literary and cultural production that reimagines these moments. Together, these cultural texts demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of “local” fiction to reckon with the history of colonization and its legacies in the colonial present. Thus, in order to resist the paradigm of U.S. empire and to reimagine alternatives to colonized spaces, I propose the possibility of a material politics that accounts for how imperial epistemologies constitute the realm of the historical and literary imaginaries. In refusing to collapse Kanaka Maoli and Asian settler into a false political and racial equivalence, I instead argue for the necessity of reorienting the figure of the “local” Asian settler reveals the continuation of U.S. nationalist and imperialist knowledge production in the present. This relationality between history and narrative conveys how imaginative practices undergo continual colonization. This situates my project at the juncture of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and ethnic studies where my theoretical interventions identify how Hawaiʻi’s history and literary production reveals the limits of current Asian American and postcolonial studies. Thus, my project calls for alternative strategies of decolonization where the aesthetic imagination becomes a material site of decolonizing politics. As such, I theorize how this form of decolonial and anti-imperial politics needs to account for how the imaginative realm is structured by the history of U.S. empire. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Images ................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... iii Introduction “An Island in the Middle of the Pacific:” The Politics of Belonging and Where to Begin ....................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 The 1848 Mahele and The Descendants: Imagining the Past and Future of the ‘Āina ................................................................................................. 41 Chapter 2 Imagining the Leper: The Colonial Archive’s Regulation of Fiction ........................... 98 Chapter 3 Producing ‘Local’ Settlers out of Asian ‘Migrants:’ The Process of Belonging through Labor and Love ............................................................................ 155 Chapter 4 U.S. Militarism, Environmental Justice, Alternative Kinship, and the “House of Damaged Men” ............................................................................. 225 Coda Looking into the Horizon: Slam Poetry, Graffiti Murals, and Community Art .................................................................................................... 287 Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 305 Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 319 i LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Schuyler Tweet ................................................................................................ 5 Figure 1.2: Sierra Tweet ................................................................................................. 6 Figure 2.1: Hadar’s “Hapa” ........................................................................................ 295 Figure 2.2: Stevenson School in Process .................................................................... 301 Figure 2.3: Stevenson School Finished ....................................................................... 301 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation would not have been completed without the most supportive, inspiring, and intellectually rigorous committee to mentor me throughout this difficult process. I am forever indebted to their generosity and time that exponentially helped me develop my project. My chair, Chandan Reddy, has been my biggest intellectual and personal inspiration. Through my time at the University of Washington, his mentorship and unfailing attentiveness has encouraged me and reminded me why I started on this path. He has challenged me to develop my thinking and has provided the ideal model for the kind of scholar and mentor I hope to become one day. I will be forever grateful for our coffee meetings and our Facetimes. I will always be indebted to Alys Weinbaum for her tremendous influence on my scholarship and pedagogy. Her incisive drive for precision and clarity has inspired my writing and my approach to intellectual inquiry. I look forward to continuing our conversations in the future and hope to be as detail- oriented in my arguments as she always is. Moon-Ho Jung’s commitment to meticulous research and precise argumentation will forever influence my scholarly endeavors. I am grateful for Moon-Ho’s guidance and his political commitments that continue to inspire me. This committee has provided me with exemplary models of scholarship, mentorship, and teaching. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart. The University of Washington has provided me with an incredible support system from other professors and mentors. Anis Bawarshi’s support of my teaching and leadership skills has been influential to my pedagogy and graduate school career. Colette Moore’s support and kindness has constantly contributed to my growth as a teacher. Rick Bonus’ warmth and enthusiasm has made me feel welcomed. Shawn Wong has always made me laugh and he iii believed in my work from my first quarter. I am ever thankful for the Simpson Center’s support of the Asian American Studies Research Collective as well as the Summer Institute for Global Indigeneity. Both of these groups challenged my intellectual development and encouraged me to strive for clarity in my dissertation project and its stakes. I am extremely grateful for my friends who have endured and experienced the challenges of all the stages of this dissertation. Without their intellectual and emotional support, I am confident that this project would not have been completed. These advocates and friends have been the only bright moments at times during this grueling process: Anna Shajiart, Taylor Boulware, Kirin Watcher-Greene, Curtis Hisayasu, Caleb Knapp, Roger Chao, Rachel Arteaga, Ned Schaumberg, and Alissa Bourbonnais. I will always be thankful for Alysse Hotz’s brilliance and enthusiasm, especially in the last few months of my dissertation. Our daily texts and mutual obsession with La Croix and kitties absolutely kept me going through that final sprint. From Ba Bar dates to gchats, I am grateful for Sam Simon’s