The technology of writing was not - to my current knowledge - in existence when Europeans visited Nauru for the first time. It is therefore an import of Nauru's German colonisers. No doubt there remain written records and official documents from the administration - but this is not the kind of Nauruan literature I am looking for, if it exists.
This raises the question of which texts can be considered literature and which of these texts of literature can be considered 'Nauruan literature'. Does the adjective Nauruan here refer to the language or the nationality? If the former, it surely would not count as Nauruan literature if I were to, if I were able to, write a few lines in Nauruan and call it poetry. If the latter, would a Nauruan emigrant living in France writing in French produce Nauruan literature or French literature?
A narrow, definition of the term Nauruan literature would be the following: written language of a deliberately creative or narrative style composed in the Nauruan language by a native Nauruan. If we accept that as our definition, the size of the Nauruan literary corpus - to my current knowledge - is zero. (That is discounting parliamentary proceedings[1] and Nauruan Wikipedia[2] - which are the only online sources of Nauruan written by Nauruans I know of - because these are not 'of a deliberately creative or narrative style'.)
Nonetheless, if we expand our definition slightly a few texts become part of the Nauruan corpus. For example, the Bible was translated into Nauruan by missionary Philip Delaporte.[3] He was not a Nauruan native but nonetheless lived on the island for many years undergoing his evangelical work. This should be considered Nauruan literature in the way that Samuel Beckett's plays written in French are considered French literature despite his being Irish by birth. If we include this it would seem here that the primary sense of Nauruan in Nauruan literature is to do with the language.
But what of works of literary merit written in English by Nauruans? That would describe the pages in the Wikipedia category for Nauruan literature, which has only one page on the poem A Beautiful Prayer[4] by the English-language poet Joanne Gobure.[5] According to the article on Gobure, the poem gained popularity on Christian web fora,[6] accounting for its popularity outside Nauru. Other poems by Gobure are also alluded to in the article, but I cannot find any online apart from A Beautiful Prayer. The article admits that these are "little known"[6] outside of the island.
Taking pre-Conquest English (i.e. referring the rough geographical area now known as 'England') literature as an example of how to deal with a bilingual situation, works are categorised into Old English or Anglo-Saxon Literature (i.e. written in the Old English language) and Anglo-Latin (i.e. written in Latin on the island of Britain, or, for our purposes, England). In a similar vein, Nauruan literature can be divided into the two sub-categories of Nauruan literature proper (i.e. written in Nauruan) and Nauruan English literature (i.e. written in English on/in Nauru or written in English by a Nauruan).
I infer that some of Gobure's works are in Nauruan, even though she writes"overwhelmingly"[6] in English. Not only at the authorial level, but also at the linguistic level, there can be significant overlap between literature in the native language and literature in English - for example, a text written in a creole, or a text which slips between two different languages. While not literary in nature, President Lionel Aingimea's video interviews[7] are good examples of this slipping between two languages.
There remain a number of questions as to what constitutes 'Nauruan' literature. However, for the time being I will settle with the somewhat unsatisfactory bipartite definition of Nauruan literature as both, on the one hand, literature written in Nauruan and, on the other hand, original literature written in English by a Nauruan. This would thereby include any text in the fuzzy area between the two sub-categories, or any bilingual texts, as definitively 'Nauruan' literature. In the ambiguity of 'a Nauruan' it also invites the possibility of any English text written by someone like Delaporte being included in the corpus - exactly what the rules are, however, is a matter of debate too complex to claim to resolve in one blog post or alone.
This raises the question of which texts can be considered literature and which of these texts of literature can be considered 'Nauruan literature'. Does the adjective Nauruan here refer to the language or the nationality? If the former, it surely would not count as Nauruan literature if I were to, if I were able to, write a few lines in Nauruan and call it poetry. If the latter, would a Nauruan emigrant living in France writing in French produce Nauruan literature or French literature?
A narrow, definition of the term Nauruan literature would be the following: written language of a deliberately creative or narrative style composed in the Nauruan language by a native Nauruan. If we accept that as our definition, the size of the Nauruan literary corpus - to my current knowledge - is zero. (That is discounting parliamentary proceedings[1] and Nauruan Wikipedia[2] - which are the only online sources of Nauruan written by Nauruans I know of - because these are not 'of a deliberately creative or narrative style'.)
Nonetheless, if we expand our definition slightly a few texts become part of the Nauruan corpus. For example, the Bible was translated into Nauruan by missionary Philip Delaporte.[3] He was not a Nauruan native but nonetheless lived on the island for many years undergoing his evangelical work. This should be considered Nauruan literature in the way that Samuel Beckett's plays written in French are considered French literature despite his being Irish by birth. If we include this it would seem here that the primary sense of Nauruan in Nauruan literature is to do with the language.
But what of works of literary merit written in English by Nauruans? That would describe the pages in the Wikipedia category for Nauruan literature, which has only one page on the poem A Beautiful Prayer[4] by the English-language poet Joanne Gobure.[5] According to the article on Gobure, the poem gained popularity on Christian web fora,[6] accounting for its popularity outside Nauru. Other poems by Gobure are also alluded to in the article, but I cannot find any online apart from A Beautiful Prayer. The article admits that these are "little known"[6] outside of the island.
Taking pre-Conquest English (i.e. referring the rough geographical area now known as 'England') literature as an example of how to deal with a bilingual situation, works are categorised into Old English or Anglo-Saxon Literature (i.e. written in the Old English language) and Anglo-Latin (i.e. written in Latin on the island of Britain, or, for our purposes, England). In a similar vein, Nauruan literature can be divided into the two sub-categories of Nauruan literature proper (i.e. written in Nauruan) and Nauruan English literature (i.e. written in English on/in Nauru or written in English by a Nauruan).
I infer that some of Gobure's works are in Nauruan, even though she writes"overwhelmingly"[6] in English. Not only at the authorial level, but also at the linguistic level, there can be significant overlap between literature in the native language and literature in English - for example, a text written in a creole, or a text which slips between two different languages. While not literary in nature, President Lionel Aingimea's video interviews[7] are good examples of this slipping between two languages.
There remain a number of questions as to what constitutes 'Nauruan' literature. However, for the time being I will settle with the somewhat unsatisfactory bipartite definition of Nauruan literature as both, on the one hand, literature written in Nauruan and, on the other hand, original literature written in English by a Nauruan. This would thereby include any text in the fuzzy area between the two sub-categories, or any bilingual texts, as definitively 'Nauruan' literature. In the ambiguity of 'a Nauruan' it also invites the possibility of any English text written by someone like Delaporte being included in the corpus - exactly what the rules are, however, is a matter of debate too complex to claim to resolve in one blog post or alone.
Nonetheless, there are a number of works that I think I can say are definitely Nauruan literature without seeming arbitrary - at the very least these are texts I would consider Nauruan literature. These are of course A Beautiful Prayer and the Nauruan translation of the Bible. Moreover, two books of Nauruan stories have been published by the University of the South Pacific. These are Legends, Traditions and Tales of Nauru (ISBN: 9789820203945) and Stories from Nauru (ISBN: 9789820201125).[8] The former is essentially an English transcription-translation of existing Nauruan oral literature and folklore. The latter contains - as I can ascertain from a Google Books preview[9] - stories in English of Nauru locals about their contemporary life on the island. I will be looking to acquire copies of the books and review them.
Acquiring copies of Nauruan literary works is difficult as there are few copies of the above editions in UK libraries and these are unavailable on Amazon. There is no official website for and no published copy of Gobure's poems, so it may involve contacting Nauruan residents to make any of her other poems available to the wider world. Nonetheless, this post sketches an outline of Nauruan literature and is hopefully useful to anyone willing to find out more.
[1] see 'Hansard - a record of what is said in Parliament', The Government of the Republic of Nauru
[2] see 'Bwiema Peij', Wikipedia - Entsikropidiya emenengame
[3] 'Philip Delaporte', Wikipedia
[4] 'Category:Nauruan literature', Wikipedia
[5] 'A Beautiful Prayer', Wikipedia
[6] 'Joanne Gobure', Wikipedia
[7] 'His Excellency President Lionel Rouwen Aingimea M.P has continued to give Nauruans update on the Coronavirus situation in Nauru in an exclusive interview', Nauru Media News, Facebook
[8] 'IPS Publications' on 'Books for Sale', The University of the South Pacific
[9] 'Stories from Nauru', Google Books
Acquiring copies of Nauruan literary works is difficult as there are few copies of the above editions in UK libraries and these are unavailable on Amazon. There is no official website for and no published copy of Gobure's poems, so it may involve contacting Nauruan residents to make any of her other poems available to the wider world. Nonetheless, this post sketches an outline of Nauruan literature and is hopefully useful to anyone willing to find out more.
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Sources:
[1] see 'Hansard - a record of what is said in Parliament', The Government of the Republic of Nauru
[2] see 'Bwiema Peij', Wikipedia - Entsikropidiya emenengame
[3] 'Philip Delaporte', Wikipedia
[4] 'Category:Nauruan literature', Wikipedia
[5] 'A Beautiful Prayer', Wikipedia
[6] 'Joanne Gobure', Wikipedia
[7] 'His Excellency President Lionel Rouwen Aingimea M.P has continued to give Nauruans update on the Coronavirus situation in Nauru in an exclusive interview', Nauru Media News, Facebook
[8] 'IPS Publications' on 'Books for Sale', The University of the South Pacific
[9] 'Stories from Nauru', Google Books
I have nauruan tales in nauruan language. 1938 y.
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