July, 04, 2013 09:19 Age: 40 days
Humanities Seminar Series
Category:
Sessions are held in the FALE Meeting Room. Below are the first two seminars of the semester. Everyone is welcome!
Thursday 1 August
Ana Kitolelei, SLAM
A Fijian of Part-Europeans: A case-study of Wainunu-i-caxe
Fijian, originally the language of the indigenous race, is now spoken by over half of Fiji’s population. There are many varieties of Fijian and one of these is spoken by the kailoma of Wainunu-i-caxe. A kailoma is “someone descended from a European man married to an Indigenous Fijian or Rotuman woman [from Fijian]” (Macquarie Dictionary of English for the Fiji Islands 2006, p. 307). It is important to note that no linguistic study has been conducted on the Fijian of kailoma. There has also been little or no research conducted on kailoma customs, lifestyles and opinions. This presentation is an overview of my MA Linguistics thesis describing the communalect of three neighbouring kailoma settlements of Batinivuriwai, Nakabuta and Wainivesi, located in Wainunu, Bua, Vanualevu. This study will contribute to future research on similar studies of kailoma varieties and contact linguistics.
Thursday 15 August
Dr Matthew Hayward, SLAM
The Text and the Commodity
Literary studies has conventionally involved distinctions between different types of texts. For many influential writers and critics in the twentieth century, ‘serious’ literature was above concerning itself with commodities, the crude material of everyday life. Instead, great literature was expected to deal with great spiritual truths and values.
In this paper, I trace changes in the literary representation of commodities, in texts ranging from ancient Greece to the modern metropolis. I argue that attention to these neglected details brings into relief some of the biases and blind-spots of traditional approaches to literature.
