Shakespeare in 1800s Hawaiian Newspapers

Hoonaueueihe, Ka Haku Moolelo Kaulana Loa o Enelani: Shakespeare in the Nineteenth-Century Hawaiian-Language Newspapers
3 – 5 p.m., Ohia Building, 220 Grille or Cafeteria
Kapi‘olani Community College: 4303 Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, HI 96816

Renowned bard William Shakespeare’s plays enriched the Hawaiian-language newspapers from 1850 to 1925. These plays were translated into Hawaiian and serialized from Charles & Mary Lamb’s prose adaptations. This talk will cover the newspaper editors’ purposes in publishing these works.

Title Page of Shakespeare’s First Folio

The Hawaiian-language newspapers shared “kaao” (legends) and “moolelo” (histories/stories) serial publications. They greatly contributed to the vibrant public sphere emerging in the mid-nineteenth-century Hawaii.

Native Hawaiians playfully translated Shakespeare’s name as “Hoonaueueihe,” going beyond the usual transliteration of English authors’ names. Arguably, they did so because they recognized Shakespeare’s name and texts as a familiar, pleasurable word-wit and an insight into personal and public politics.

By reading the traces of Hoonaueueihe in the Hawaiian-language newspapers, one can glimpse a refashioning of Shakespeare for use in an island kingdom centuries and miles away from his own time and home.

Dr. Laura Lehua Yim is an Assistant Professor of English at San Francisco State University. Specializing in early modern English literature, law, and culture, she is currently finishing her book Fluid Propriety: Water and Authority in Spenser and Shakespeare, which re-interprets the ubiquity of rivers and streams in Elizabethan prose, poetry, and drama in relationship to the complex Tudor history of property rights in fresh water. This research includes cartographic history, particularly the legal maps drawn for freshwater-use rights disputes. Her work has also focused on Hawaiian legal history and current legal and political issues as well as “Native” issues in the common law diaspora.

Shakespeare First Folio exhibit and the Hawai’i Book and Music Festival

William Shakespeare’s First Folio—the first collected edition of his plays and one of the world’s most influential books—will be on display at Kapi‘olani Community College’s Lama Library from April 25 through May 25, 2016. During and leading up to the month-long exhibition of First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, the College will host speakers, workshops for teachers, a special Shakespeare Comes to Hawai‘i exhibit, and more.

First Folio of William Shakespeare’s plays

Multiple translations of Hamlet’s most famous speech will be on display, including a rendering of the speech into Hawaiian by Professor Puakea Nogelmeier, who pointed out “for the sake of humor” when asked to attempt the daunting task, “There is no term for “to be” in Hawaiian.” (click to hear recording of “to be or not to be” speech in Hawaiian)

Are you curious about whether any Shakespeare materials ever appeared in Hawaiian language newspapers during the nineteenth century? Ever wonder if Shakespeare productions took place here during WWII? Like to know what was going on in Honolulu during the 300th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death? Come to Lama Library this spring when a few significant moments in the history of Shakespeare in Hawai‘i will be featured in the library lobby’s Shakespeare Comes to Hawai‘i exhibit to be presented concurrently with First Folio! on the library’s second floor.

Friday, April 29, 3-5 pm, KCC, Ohia Bldg. (food services), in the cafeteria, Valerie Wayne, “Shakespeare’s First Folio: The Book’s Own Story.”

Saturday, April 30, 1 pm
Hawaii Book and Music Festival, Authors Mauka Pavilion, “Shakespeare in Hawai‘i and Hawaiian,” Valerie Wayne, moderator; Mark Lawhorn, KCC; Paul Mitri, UHM; Puakea Nogelmeier, UHM.

William Shakespeare

Saturday, April 30, 2 pm. Hawaii Book and Music Festival, Authors Mauka Pavilion, “Shakespeare and the Ali‘i Nui,” Craig Howes, moderator; Theresa Di Pasquale of Whitman College, Puakea Nogelmeier, UHM.

Friday, May 6, 3-5 pm, KCC, Ohia Bldg. (food services), in the cafeteria, Laura Lehua Yim, San Francisco State University, “Hoonaueueihe, Ka Haku Moolelo Kaulana Loa o Enelani: Shakespeare in the Nineteenth-Century Hawaiian Language Newspapers.”

Friday, May 13, 3-5 pm, KCC, Ohia Bldg. (food services), in the cafeteria, Karen Jolley, History at UHM, “Turning the Pages: The Sensory Experience of Books.”

Friday, May 20, 3-5 pm, KCC, Ohia Bldg. (food services), in the cafeteria, Mark Heberle, “Shakespeare’s Quartos and the First Folio,” and Mark Lawhorn, KCC, “Shakespeare in Hawai’i during World War II.”

Tuesday, May 24, 6-7:30 pm, Diamond Head Theatre, closing event, Paul Edmondson, Head of Research and Knowledge, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, “Shakespeare at 400: Why?” and Renate Mesmer, Head of Conservation, Folger Shakespeare Library, “Behind the Scenes of the Preservation and Conservation Department at the Folger Shakespeare Library

A complete calendar of events for the First Folio Exhibit is available at https://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/shakespeare/.

A list of all the events at the Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival can be found at http://hawaiibookandmusicfestival.com.

Questions? vwayne@hawaii.edu

Edited by Alice Kim