In this compelling critique Rob Wilson explores the creation of the "Pacific Rim" in the American imagination and how the concept has been variously adapted and resisted in Hawai'i, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. "Reimagining the American Pacific "ranges from the nineteenth century to the present and draws on theories of postmodernism, transnationality, and post-Marxist geography to contribute to the ongoing discussion of what constitutes "global" and "local."
Wilson begins by tracing the arrival of American commerce and culture in the Pacific through missionary and imperial forces in the nineteenth century and the parallel development of Asia/Pacific as an idea. Using an impressive range of texts--from works by Herman Melville, James Michener, Maori and Western Samoan novelists, and Bamboo Ridge poets to "Baywatch," films and musicals such as "South Pacific "and "Blue Hawaii," and native Hawaiian shark god poetry--Wilson illustrates what it means for a space to be "regionalized." Claiming that such places become more open to transnational flows of information, labor, finance, media, and global commodities, he explains how they then become isolated, their borders simultaneously crossed and fixed. In the case of Hawai'i, Wilson argues that culturally innovative, risky forms of symbol making and a broader--more global--vision of local plight are needed to counterbalance the racism and increasing imbalance of cultural capital and goods in the emerging postplantation and tourist-centered economy.
"Reimagining the American Pacific" leaves the reader with a new understanding of the complex interactions of global and local economies and cultures in a region that, since the 1970s, has been a leading trading partner of the United States. It is an engaging and provocative contribution to the fields of Asian and American studies, as well as those of cultural studies and theory, literary criticism, and popular culture.
Industry Reviews
"This is a splendid piece of work. Reimagining the American Pacific is a crucial contribution to the field of Asian-Pacific studies. It opens up new ground even as it joins and intervenes significantly in the debate on the nature and location of cultural politics. The author does a remarkable job of making available to the reader the history of the Asian-Pacific rim. His special touch has to do with the elegant manner in which he brings theory to bear on incredibly detailed material. The reader of this book will gain a comprehensive education about the importance of the region."--[PERMISSION PENDING] [edited RR, PP] Rajagopolan Radhakrishnan, University of Massachusetts at WHERE? " Lyrical and disruptive, Wilson's book masterfully dismantles multiple and contradictory imaginings of "the Pacific" and recovers the psychic longings, material histories, and politics that have variously produced the modern "Asia Pacific." This book wrenches American studies out of any lingering continent-bound complacency, gives a much needed broader scope to Asian American studies, and discloses crucial blind-spots in Asian area studies. Highly recommended for scholars in all these areas, as well as cultural studies in general."--David Palumbo -Liu, author of Asian/American: Historical Crossings of a Racial Frontier [See EY routing note re others! We won't have room for these, even, w/out cutting.] "Reimagining the American Pacific convincingly articulates a common poetics of a Pacific local that illuminates the common ground linking even those factions currently at each others' throats. One comes from this book with a conviction that, as the dust settles, many of those involved in Pacific cultural production will find in Wilson's book an inspired vision of global stakes and local strategy."--[PERMISSION PENDING] [edited RR, PP] Cristopher Connery, University of California, Santa Cruz [And see EY routing note re others.] "At ease with the interface of the local and global, Rob Wilson flies in and out of Asia and the Pacific. As he rediscovers and redefines the continent, islands and waters, he constantly rereads America. Such a geographic venture is also an exercise in de-disciplining. Circulating freely among literature, culture, economics, politics, history, and media, Wilson's imagination and judgement are shrewd, sardonic, zestful, zany, and delightful. Reimagining the American Pacific is a thoroughly rewarding book."--Masao Miyoshi, University of California, San Diego "This book is a product of the tangled and overlapping multicultural voices it attempts to track. In it one hears a cacophony of voices, from the Hawaiian kings invoked in indigenous shark god poetry to Elvis's "Blue Hawaii" to the Asian-American pastoral verse of the pineapple plantations. While the many strands of Wilson's argument are sometimes hard to follow, the knotted whole is greatly evocative of place and literature in contemporary Hawaii."--Times Literary Supplement, March 16 2001 -
