Orality, Textuality, and Memory: The Language of Pacific Literatures

Abstract

Abstract This chapter departs from the broadly chronological focus of previous chapters in order to explore the importance of oral literary traditions to contemporary Pacific literatures. It begins with an overview of the transition from orality to print in Pacific cultures, exploring the interchange between Indigenous, colonial, and contact languages during the colonial period, and offering stylistic analyses of the ways in which Pacific writers incorporate vocabulary and grammatical features from colonial contact languages (such as Melanesian Pidgin, Hawai’i Creole English, and Fiji Hindi) into their work.