- Key People:
- Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Indonesian literatures
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What is Indonesian literature?
Indonesian literature includes poetry, prose, and oral traditions in languages like Javanese, Malay, and Sundanese. Much of this verbal art is orally transmitted, such as the pantun and the kentrung traditions of Java.
Contemporary Indonesian literature began in the 1930s with the journal Poedjangga Baroe, which aimed to promote new ideas in Indonesian, opposing the colonial government's sanctioned writing. Chairil Anwar, a poet from the 1940s, significantly impacted Indonesian literature through his intense imagery and rebellious attitude.
Despite challenges and restrictions, Indonesian literature has remained vibrant, with literary groups and journals like Horison and Kalam publishing local works.
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What languages are Indonesian literatures written in?
Indonesian literature is written in various languages of the Indonesian archipelago, reflecting its diverse linguistic landscape. These languages include:
- Javanese
- Malay
- Sundanese
- Acehnese
- Batak
- Rejang
- Lampong
- Makassarese and Buginese
- Madurese
Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, plays a significant role in modern Indonesian literature and serves as a unifying force. It is used in print, political communication, education, and media. Early on, writers of Chinese and Sumatran descent used it to produce novels, plays, and poetry, which led to the birth of modern Indonesian literature.
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What are some traditional forms of Indonesian literature?
Traditional Indonesian literature includes a rich variety of verbal arts, often transmitted orally. Common forms are expressive pantun quatrains and narrative kentrung traditions, which use pantun structure to recount religious or historical tales accompanied by drums. Macapat is another metric and melodic form used to present tales from ancient Hindu-Javanese literature.
Indonesia's oldest theatre forms are linked to local literary traditions. Puppet theatres like wayang golek and wayang kulit draw repertoire from versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Wayang wong uses actors for these tales, while some wayang golek performances present Muslim stories called menak.
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Who are some famous Indonesian writers or poets?
Pramoedya Ananta Toer was Indonesia's preeminent post-independence prose writer, known for novels and short stories incorporating Javanese speech and culture. His notable works include The Fugitive, Guerrilla Family, and a tetralogy depicting Javanese society under Dutch rule.
Chairil Anwar was a prominent poet and leader of the new generation of nationalistic writers, whose support for the revolution led to his arrest in 1947 by Dutch colonial authorities. Muhammad Yamin was another poet who, along with others, was influenced by European Romantic, Parnassian, and Symbolist verse.
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How did colonialism influence Indonesian literature?
Colonialism significantly shaped Indonesian literature by introducing Western influences and Dutch as the language of administration, sidelining vernacular languages. The rise of Indonesian nationalism in the early 20th century sparked a revival of native languages and the creation of modern Indonesian literature.
Pudjangga Baru, a literary journal, emerged in 1933, promoting new ideas and expressions in Indonesian, opposing colonial constraints. Writers like Muhammad Yamin adopted European literary styles, addressing the conflict between traditionalism and progress in their works. The Japanese occupation in 1942 further fueled nationalistic fervor in literature, followed by government censorship that restricted literary activity after 1965.
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What are some common themes in modern Indonesian literature?
Modern Indonesian literature, which emerged in the early 20th century, is closely linked to the nationalist movement and the ideal of a national language, Bahasa Indonesia. A group of young writers initiated contemporary Indonesian literature in the 1930s through the journal Poedjangga Baroe, which disseminated new ideas that ran counter to the colonial government's sanctioned writing.
Themes in Indonesian literature include:
* The struggle between generations, balancing traditional values and modern progress
* Nationalism and the desire for a modern, independent Indonesia
* Religious and social rebellion
* Universal humanismHowever, Indonesian literature faced challenges in the second half of the 20th century due to governmental restrictions and censorship, with writers facing imprisonment for nonconformity.
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Indonesian literatures, the poetry and prose writings in Javanese, Malay, Sundanese, and other languages of the peoples of Indonesia. They include works orally transmitted and then preserved in written form by the Indonesian peoples, oral literature, and the modern literatures that began to emerge in the early 20th century as a result of Western influence.
Many of the Indonesian songs, or poems, that were orally transmitted by professional priest-singers embody traditions that have a religious function. Improvisation played a great part in this kind of poetry, and there is reason to believe that in its present form much of it is of no great age. Indonesian orally transmitted prose forms are highly varied and include myths, animal stories and “beast fables,” fairy tales, legends, puzzles and riddles, and anecdotes and adventure stories. The divine heroes and epic animals of these tales show the influence of Indian literature and the written literatures of other neighbouring cultures.
Written literature in Indonesia has been preserved in the various languages of Sumatra (Acehnese, Batak, Rejang, Lampong, and Malay), in the languages of Java (Sundanese and Madurese as well as Javanese), in Bali and Lombok, and in the more important languages of South Celebes (Makassarese and Buginese). By far the most important in both quantity and quality are the literatures in Javanese and Malay.
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The earliest extant examples of Javanese literature date from the 9th or 10th century ce. An important position in this early literature is occupied by Javanese prose and poetic versions of the two great Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. The Javanese also borrowed from India’s sophisticated court poetry in Sanskrit, in the process making it Javanese in expression, form, and feeling.
When Islam reached Java in the 15th century, the mystical tendencies in it were incorporated by the Javanese into their own markedly mystical religious literature. Muslim influence was especially fertile during the early 17th century in Aceh, where Malay for the first time became an important written literary language. In Java, Muslim legends of saints were combined with Hindu-derived mythologies and cosmologies to produce imaginative works of historical narrative in which magico-mystical elements play a prominent role.
The Javanese and Malay literatures declined under the impact of Dutch colonial domination in the 18th and 19th centuries. Only in the 20th century did a modern Indonesian literature arise, closely linked as it was to the nationalist movement and to the new ideal of a national language, Bahasa Indonesia. After 1920 a modern Indonesian literature rapidly came into existence. Muhammad Yamin and other prominent poets at this time were influenced by the forms and expressive modes of Romantic, Parnassian, and Symbolist verse from Europe. The first Indonesian novels also appeared in the 1920s and ’30s; these were typical regional works by Abdul Muis and others in which the central theme is the struggle between the generations, between the stifling burden of traditionalism and the impulse for modern progress.
In 1933, with the appearance of the review Pudjangga Baru (“The New Writer”), a new generation of intellectuals began to assess whether to maintain traditional values or to consciously accept Western norms in the effort to establish a modern but genuinely Indonesian culture. This discussion was interrupted by the Japanese occupation of Indonesia in 1942, which eventually broke up a generation that was still closely bound to Indonesia’s colonial situation. With the Indonesian nationalist revolution of 1945, a new generation of fervently nationalistic and idealistic young writers who professed a universal humanism came to the forefront. Their inspiration and leader was the great poet Chairil Anwar, who died in 1949 at age 27. The most prominent writer to emerge at this time was Pramoedya Ananta Toer, whose support for the revolution led to his arrest in 1947 by Dutch colonial authorities. He wrote his first published novel, Perburuan (1950; The Fugitive), while imprisoned.
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The political climate changed radically after the violent events that surrounded Suharto’s assumption of power in 1965–66. Strict government censorship was introduced, and many writers were either imprisoned or silenced. Continued restrictions on freedom of expression limited literary activity during the following decades, although these restrictions were eased somewhat after Suharto’s resignation from the presidency, in 1998.