‘Gauguin is dead’

The work of Samoan writer Sia Figiel, one of the newest and most incisive voices in contemporary Oceanic literature, clearly bears witness to Wendt’s influence within the field of Pacific writing. Like Wendt, Figiel has engaged with the complex effects of colonization, independence and migration upon the socio-political dynamics of Samoan culture, and she shares her compatriot’s interest in existentialism and the corruptions of consumer capitalism. Figiel’s writing differs from Wendt’s, however, in its specific focus on Samoan female subjectivity, and she has pointed out that she developed her own particular style and subject matter ‘specifically because of what was missing’ from Wendt’s work (Subramani 1996: 129; my italics). This chapter explores three particular preoccupations in Figiel’s writing: the obsession with Samoan or Polynesian (female) sexuality within European discourse; the internal gender politics of Samoan society; and the influence of Western education, media and consumer capitalism upon young Samoan women.