Description
Book SynopsisExplores the creation of the Pacific Rim in the American imagination and how the concept has been adapted and resisted in Hawai'i, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. This title draws on theories of postmodernism, transnationality, and post-Marxist geography to contribute to the discussion of what constitutes 'global' and 'local'.
Trade Review“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 judgment are shrewd, sardonic, zestful, zany, and delightful.
Reimagining the American Pacific is a thoroughly rewarding book.”—Masao Miyoshi, University of California, San Diego
“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 FrontierTable of ContentsPreface: Searching for “the Local”: Hawai‘i as Miss Universe?
Introduction: “How Did You Find America?”: On Becoming Asia/Pacific
1. Imagining “Asia-Pacific” Today: Forgetting Colonialisms in the Magical Waters of the Pacific
2. American Trajectories into Hawai‘i and the Pacific: Imperial Mappings, Postcolonial Contestations
3. Megatrends and Micropolitics in the American Pacific: Tracing Some “Local Motions” from Mark Twain to Bamboo Ridge
4. Blue Hawai‘i: Bamboo Ridge as “Critical Regionalism”
5. Bloody Mary Meets Lois-Ann Yamanaka: Imagining Hawaiian Locality, from South Pacific to Bamboo Ridge and Beyond
6. Shark God on Trial: Invoking Chief Ka-lani-o‘pu‘u in the Local/Indigenous/American Struggle for Place
7. Good-Bye Paradise: Theorizing Place, Poetics, and Cultural Production in the American Pacific
8. Becoming Global and Local in the U.S. Transnational Imaginary of the Pacific
9. Postmodern X: Honolulu Traces
Coda: Part Italian, Part Many Things Else: Creating “Asia/Pacific” along a Honolulu-Taipei Line of Flight
