Literature

Marshallese culture has a rich store of oral traditions, covering the aspects of the origin of elements of the Marshallese world, as well as historic events.

Marshallese Legends and Traditions

edited by Jane Downing and Dirk H.R. Spennemann

A English-language compilation of various Marshallese Legends and Traditions. This book (in its second edition) was the first attempt to compile oral traditions for both a Marshallese and a English-speaking audience.

The Whale and the Sandpiper

an oral tradition retold and illustrated by Jane Downing

An illustrated oral tradition originally developed as a an English reader for Marshallese schools.

      HTML version

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The Hermit Crab and the Needlefish

an oral tradition retold and illustrated by Jane Downing

An illustrated oral tradition originally developed as a an English reader for Marshallese schools.

      HTML version

      PDF version

Letao to America

an oral tradition told by Kelin

Letao continues his trickery in modern times. A good example of the endurance and continuing appeal of this mythological character.

A number of authors wrote short stories or novellas set in the Marshall Islands. Some of them such as Louis Becke and Jane Downing, had lived there for a while or travelled through (such as Fanny Stevenson), while others, such as Handley Bathurst Sterndale, were largely arm-chair writers. This section contains brief biographies of the main writers as well as samples of their witing

BECKE, George Lewis ('Louis') (1855-1913)

 

Marketing a colonial Australian writer (Web-based Presentation)

The British and American Publishing History of Louis Becke (1859-1913)

by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

WARNING:

The slide show is quite heavy on images, some of which may be slow to load.

George Lewis 'Louis' Becke (1855-1913)

A brief biography

by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

The methodical Mr. Burr of Majuro

short story by Louis Becke

edited by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

A point of theology on Majuro

short story by Louis Becke

edited by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

The strange white woman of Majuro

short story by Louis Becke

edited by Dirk H.R. Spennemann

DOWNING, Jane

 

The Greenhouse Ark

short story by Jane Downing

The Christmas Choir

short story by Jane Downing

Creation (I)

poem by Jane Downing

Creation (II)

poem by Jane Downing

MOLL, Ernest George (1900 - 1993)

 

A Scientist Writes from Bikini

poem by Ernest G. Moll

VON SCHEVEN, Rudolph

 

El Niño '92 - The dry side of life

poem by Rudolph von Scheven

Vitalizing Culture in Youth

By Daniel A. Kelin, II

From the Micronesian Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences [PDF file]