Reimagining the American Pacific: From South Pacific to Bamboo Ridge and Beyond

Wilson begins by tracing the arrival of American commerce and culture in the Pacific through missionary and imperial forces in the 19th century and the parallel development of Asia/Pacific as an idea. Using a 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 regionalised .