Towards an electronic fāgogo: Lani Wendt Young’s Telesā series and social media

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article argues that Samoan author Lani Wendt Young’s Telesā series presents a complex way of thinking about the possible continuity between indigenous Samoan traditional forms and contemporary literatures. Her four-book fantasy romance series and its corresponding paratextual writings adapt and transform Samoan storytelling traditions and myths, as they operate within a popular idiom and mass medium. Young uses social media platforms to establish an interactive connection between storyteller and audience analogous to that of the Samoan live oral storytelling tradition of fāgogo, characterized by audience response that is considered an integral aspect of the performance. Young’s works shift the sense of literature in the Pacific, highlighting its function as a means of performing versions of communal rituals and taking steps towards revising the Eurocentric literary model that privileges the singular author, suggesting a Pacific vision for the way stories are produced and exchanged.