Literature indonésienne
The literature indonésienne is initially the literature coming from Indonesia, or written in Indonésien. Indonesia is a recent nation, which proclaimed its independence in 1945. However, the " Oath of Jeunesse" pronounced in 1928 pronounced by representatives of organizations of youth Indigène in what was still the the Indies Dutchwomen expresses already the aspiration " a nation: the nation indonésienne, a language: the indonésien, a country: Indonésie". What the nationalists then call “indonésien” is well the Malayan, which since centuries was used as Lingua franca between the various people of the archipelago.
It is thus considered that the literature written as of the years 1930 into Malayan, from the nationalist point of view indonésienne, is already a " literature indonésienne".
One can include in the literature indonésienne that written by people that Indonesia regards as participant of the national movement. Most eminent of these people is countess R.A. Kartini, aristocrat Javanese who wrote in Dutch to denounce the condition made to the Javanese women of his time.
The colonial time
The writers of the country Minangkabau in the west of Sumatra play a leading role in this modern literature indonésienne lately born. Muhammad Yamin (1903-64) gives up the Malayan traditional forms like the Pantun and publishes into 1920 the first modern poems in indonésien. In 1922 Marah Roesli (1898-1968) publishes Siti Nurbaya, the first modern novel indonésien, which tells a love made tragic by the shock between tradition and modernity. Sanusi Breaded, Moslem, proclaims that Indonésiens must seek their inspiration in the pre-Islamic past of Indonesia.The first 20 years of independent Indonesia
This modern literature gains in vitality after independence. During the years of conflict between the young republic and the former Dutch colonizer, Chairil Anwar (1922-49), ombrageux character and rebel, is the figurehead of the poetic movement Angkatan 45 , the “generation of 45”.In the cultural field, years 1960 are remembered by antagonism between the intellectuals close to the PKI, brought together in Lekra ( Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat , “institute of popular culture”), of which most known is the writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, and the others, whose most eminent figure is the writer Mochtar Lubis.
The time of Soeharto
Repression anticommunist of 1965-1966 will make devastations among intellectuals indonésiens. The Soeharto period does not shine by a great creativity.In the last years of Soeharto emerges a new generation of young writers and especially écrivaines. The most noticed is Ayu Utami, born in 1968.
Today
The end of the Soeharto mode also allowed the awakening of the role of the Indonésiens of Chinese origin in the formation of the national language. One recognizes from now on the importance of the will sastra Melayu-Tionghoa (" literature sino- Malayan e") who, between 1870 and 1960, produced more than 3.000 works of some 800 authors, much more than the number of works and writers in modern Indonésien. This literature suffered from the prejudice with regard to the language in which she is written, regarded as " Malayan inférieur" , in opposition to the " Malayan supérieur" works published by the Pustaka Brush. The debate in progress about this literature obliges with a redefinition of what it is necessary to regard as " literature indonésienne" , and more generally, of what is " indonésien".Some writers indonésiens
- Ayu Utami
- Chairil Anwar
- R.A. Kartini
- Mochtar Lubis
- Motinggo Busye
- NR. H. Dini
- Putu Wijaya
- Remy Silado
- Sanusi Breads
- Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana
- Umar Kayam
- Mr. Yamin