Les pièces dramatiques en langue hawaiienne de Jean Charlot

Jean Charlot's Two Hawaiian Plays are the first formal, published plays in the Hawaiian lan- guage. They are the result of his life-long interest in theatre and in oral literature and native accounts of historical events. He achieves a theatrical style in which various aspects of Hawaiian life and thought become contextually comprehen- sible. The process of composition is analyzed — and the contribution of his consultants is assessed — through an examination of the successive drafts of the two plays. Themes in the plays are described as well as the bearing of the plays on the contemporary problems of Hawaiian studies and ethnic consciousness.