Cultural identity revisited: Early twentieth-century women’s work of cultural preservation (Maria Cristina Mena, Humishuma, Sui Sin Far and The Daughters of Hawai’i)

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the work of cultural preservation and self-representation by a group of women from the cultural "periphery." As I explore the works of María Cristina Mena, Humishuma (Mourning Dove), Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton) and The Daughters of Hawai'i, it becomes clear that "cultural preservation" can mean cultural "creation" and/or "reinvention", depending on the cultural desires of the writers doing the "preserving," but also on those in control of the editorial and publication processes. The level of achieved success in terms of the "purity" of any represented culture also often depends on the dominant culture's fantasies and determinations of what is culturally acceptable and believable. The works by the women I study in this project: Mexican-American, American-Indian, Chinese-American, and non-indigenous as well as indigenous Hawaiian, all show the tension between submitting to the pressure to play into fantasies of cultural domination and the desire to resist. As the products of colonial tensions, caught in the uncertain time and space of cultures in transition, forced to move between epistemological borders, these women engaged in a cultural repositioning that defied the mainstream cultural narratives of the time. It is through the border-crossing element of these women's work that the complex nature of cultural preservation and their common fight for cultural ownership and self-representation are thus appropriately highlighted.