HAWAII CREOLE ENGLISH AS A LITERARY LANGUAGE

This article deals with the use of Hawai'i Creole English (HCE) as a w ritten language in a literary or poetic function. It is argued that HC E's lack of what Kloss 1967 calls Abstand 'autonomy, distance' present s certain technical problems for writers, and acts as a barrier to fur ther Ausbau (also Kloss's term, 'elaboration') in the literary domain, particularly in the novel. Because it has no writing system of its ow n, HCE is represented as if it were a deviant or non-standard variety of English. In other words, HCE is forced to be a literary dialect rat her than a literary language. Some practical problems connected with t he elaboration process are examined, such as standardization and relat ed theoretical issues associated with narrative technique. The article concludes by considering the likelihood of successful resolution of t hese problems within the current political situation in the Hawaiian I slands.