Kareva Mateata-allain

Bridging Our Sea of Islands: French Polynesian Literature Within an Oceanic Context Kareva Mateata-allain

Tahiti and French Polynesia have been mythologized as the sensual Earthly Paradise since the 18th century. Within the last thirty years, the people indigenous to these islands, the Maohi, have been publishing their works. Most of the literary energy since 1990 has been generated by women. Through the works of Flora Devatine, Rai a Mai, Chantal Spitz, Taaria Walker, and Titaua Peu, Bridging Our Sea of Islands situates Maohi literature within Oceanic frameworks outside of tourist and colonial discourses perpetuated by the myth of Tahiti. Maohi writers experience many struggles within an array of colonial, cultural, linguistic, and social contexts. Consequently, Bridging Our Sea of Islands is about reconnecting French Polynesia with Anglophone Oceania through the power of literature. Bridging Our Sea of Islands will prove invaluable to scholars and readers of indigenous, colonial, Pacific, multicultural and women writers worldwide as it frames Maohi literature from within its own cultural contexts.