moʻolelo

The word moʻolelo is a compound, formed from moʻo (a series or succession) and ʻōlelo (spoken language). Moʻolelo thus means "a succession of spoken language", as the Hawaiian language was originally oral.{{Sfn|Pukui|1986|p=254}} However, the term can also refer to written narratives.{{Sfn|hoʻomanawanui|2004|p=86}}

There are various traditional genres of moʻolelo, as well as contemporary moʻolelo written in nontraditional genres. Features of traditional moʻolelo include kaona{{Sfn|hoʻomanawanui|2004|p=90}} (a Hawaiian rhetorical device involving allusion, puns, and metaphor,{{Sfn|McDougall|Nordstrom|2011|p=100}} translated as "underlying meaning") and the use of cultural imagery such as kalo.{{Sfn|hoʻomanawanui|2004|p=90}} Mo'olelo can be both fictional and nonfictional narratives;{{Sfn|Silva|2009|p=43}}{{Sfn|Goodyear-Ka'ōpua|Kuwada|p=9|2018}} the term {{Lang|haw|moʻolelo haku wale}} refers specifically to a fictional story,{{Sfn|Pukui|1986|p=254}} while kaʻao refers to a fictionalized story that may still be true.{{Sfn|Hopkins|2019|p=231}}{{Clarify|date=September 2021}} All moʻolelo are set in specific and identifiable locations.{{Sfn|Chang|2016|p=222}}{{Sfn|Chang|2016|p=222}}

Before Western contact, moʻolelo were passed down through oral storytelling (including song and chant{{Sfn|Hopkins|2019|p=231}}) and hula. Some epics took multiple days to tell in full.{{Sfn|hoʻomanawanui|2004|pp=87–88}}

In the 1800s, moʻolelo that affirmed the history and spiritual power of the Hawaiian Islands became popular as a response to the Western narrative of Hawaii as a place of spiritual darkness.{{Sfn|Chang|2016|p=198}}

In the 1820s, white missionaries developed a system of written Hawaiian that used the Latin alphabet. This system was used by the native Hawaiians to preserve more oral literature in native-language writing than almost any other colonized indigenous people.{{Sfn|Chang|2016|p=7}} Moʻolelo were written down and published in Hawaiian-language newspapers such as Ke Kumu Hawaii and Ka Nonanona as literacy in the written Hawaiian language became widespread.{{Sfn|Kuwada|2009|p=54}}

In the 1860s, 1870s, and 1880s, there was a concerted effort to write down and preserve aspects of Hawaiian tradition including moʻolelo.{{Sfn|Chang|2016|p=219}}

In 1896, three years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the use of the Hawaiian language for instruction in schools was banned. This caused several generations of Native Hawaiians to grow up without knowledge of the language, making them unable to read moʻolelo that had not been translated into English.{{Sfn|Silva|2009|pp=43–44}}

• Fagogo

{{Reflist|20em}}

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• {{Cite journal|last=hoʻomanawanui|first=kuʻualoha|author-link=kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui|date=2004|title=Hä, Mana, Leo (Breath, Spirit, Voice): Kanaka Maoli Empowerment through Literature|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4139042|journal=American Indian Quarterly|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|volume=28|issue=1/2|pages=86–91|doi=10.1353/aiq.2005.0011|jstor=4139042|s2cid=162350145|issn=0095-182X|url-access=subscription}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Kuwada|first=Bryan Kamaoli|date=2009|title=To Translate or Not To Translate: Revising the Translating of Hawaiian Language Texts|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23540868|journal=Biography|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|volume=32|issue=1|pages=54–65|jstor=23540868|issn=0162-4962}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Silva|first=Noenoe K.|author-link=Noenoe Silva|date=2009|title=Nā Hulu Kupuna: To Honor our Intellectual Ancestors|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23540867|journal=Biography|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|volume=32|issue=1|pages=43–53|jstor=23540867|issn=0162-4962}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=McDougall|first1=Brandy Nālani|author-link=Brandy Nālani McDougall|last2=Nordstrom|first2=Georganne|date=September 2011|title=Ma ka Hana ka 'Ike (In the Work Is the Knowledge): Kaona as Rhetorical Action|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23006899|journal=College Composition and Communication|publisher=National Council of Teachers of English|volume=63|issue=1|pages=98–121|jstor=23006899|issn=0010-096X}}
• {{Cite book|last=Chang|first=David A.|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctt1c2crj3|title=The World and All the Things upon It: Native Hawaiian Geographies of Exploration|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-8166-9942-1|jstor=10.5749/j.ctt1c2crj3}}
• {{Cite journal|last1=Goodyear-Ka'ōpua|first1=Noelani|author-link=Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua|last2=Kuwada|first2=Bryan Kamaoli|year=2018|title=Making 'Aha: Independent Hawaiian Pasts, Presents & Futures|url=https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/147/2/49-59/27213|journal=Daedalus|language=en|volume=147|issue=2|pages=49–59|doi=10.1162/DAED_a_00489|issn=0011-5266|doi-access=free}}
• {{Cite book|last=Pukui|first=Mary Kawena|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12751521|title=Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|others=Samuel H. Elbert|year=1986|isbn=978-0-8248-0703-0|edition=Rev. and enl.|location=Honolulu, Hawaii|oclc=12751521|author-link=Mary Kawena Pukui}}
• {{Cite journal|last=Hopkins|first=J. Uluwehi|date=2019|title=Moʻolelo as Resistance: The Kaona of "Kahalaopuna" in a Colonized Environment|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/741298|journal=Narrative Culture|volume=6|issue=2|pages=229–259|doi=10.13110/narrcult.6.2.0229|s2cid=199222264 |issn=2169-0251|url-access=subscription}}

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Category:Storytelling

Category:Hawaiian language

Category:Hawaiian studies