Abstract

In this paper I draw on the work of the influential Indonesian author and leftist figure Pramoedya Ananta Toer to show how Marxism provides both promise and tension when used as a political expression of non-Western aspiration. Of interest is his well-known Buru Quartet, a momentous literary tetralogy chronicling the struggle of the Indonesian people under colonial rule. The conflict between the West and non-Western, or indigenous, modernity, is a well-known theme in the discourse of occidentalism, and I use occidentalism as a framework in which to locate and explore the quartets Marxistindigenous paradox. What becomes apparent is that, albeit stemming from a rich anticolonial writing culture, the quartet represents a remarkable attack on Indonesian culture, and representations of colonialism in the quartet are as much a message to present day Indonesia as they are a strike on the Wests historic conscience. Such geographically particular writing evidences the difficulty that occidentalist scholars face when attempting to understand how the West is reified in the non-Western psyche. However, literary geography has the potential to unpack an intricate cognitive geography fraught with complex geographical representations, and in so doing can be a valuable ally of occidentalism. Keywords: Indonesia, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Buru Quartet, the West, occidentalism, modernity Word count: 14,929

Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 1 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 5 Theoretical context ............................................................................................................ 6 Contribution ....................................................................................................................... 7 Research objectives ............................................................................................................ 7 Structure ............................................................................................................................. 8 1 Occidentalism and contested modernities .................................................................. 9 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 3 3.1 3.2 3.3 4 4.1 4.2 Contesting modernity: occidentalism and the non-Western ................................ 9 Modernity, the West and civilisational context .................................................... 10 The idea of the West: tensions, histories, fantasies .............................................. 11 Conceptualising modernity: history and social change ........................................ 13 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 13 Colonial capitalism: the appeal of Marx ............................................................... 15 Revolution in Asia: the role of Lenin and Mao .................................................... 16 Internalising Marx: the PKI, Sukarno and Marhaenism ....................................... 17 Lekra, the novel and Indonesian culture ............................................................... 18 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 20 Literary geography: interpretation and analysis ................................................... 21 Of whose Indonesia do you speak? ....................................................................... 23 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 24 Synopsis ................................................................................................................ 25 The Marxist-indigenous paradox .......................................................................... 26 Minke and the allure of the West................................................................... 27 Pensive parody: Javanism and Javaneseness in the Buru Quartet ................. 30

The Marxist-indigenous paradox.............................................................................. 15

Methodology ............................................................................................................... 21

Tensions in the Buru Quartet: Marxism, the West and Javanism ........................ 25

4.2.1 4.2.2 4.3 5

Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 33

Between Europe and colonialism: understanding Western imagery in the Buru Quartet ........................................................................................................................ 34 5.1 Caught between two worlds: the duality of Europe .............................................. 34 Europe: an eighteenth century idyll ............................................................... 35 The monster of European colonialism ........................................................ 36 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.2

Between ideal and reality: understanding the ego and its other............................ 38

5.3 6 6.1 6.2 6.3

Concluding remarks .............................................................................................. 40 For a reorientation of non-Western Marxism ....................................................... 42 Contested modernities: promise and tension ........................................................ 43 The value of the novel .......................................................................................... 44

Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 42

References .............................................................................................................................. i Appendices ......................................................................................................................... viii 1 2 The five-step research process ................................................................................. viii Samples from speech and interview transcripts ...................................................... xvi

List of Figures Fig.1: Image from Indonesia Digest 5

Acknowledgements
Constructing this dissertation has been an enjoyable albeit demanding process. My thanks go to Alastair Bonnett for his expert guidance and feedback throughout all stages of the project; also to Rachel Woodward for her advice on conducting the methodology. Further thanks go to the websites marxists.org and Prampage for providing extensive research material which has proven invaluable to writing this paper. Lastly, I express eternal gratitude to my family, whose unconditional love and support has kept me strong.

Introduction
This study aims to explore constructions of the West in the Buru Quartet, with critical focus on the ambivalence of such representations, and the extent to which they provide evidence of cultural dislocation in Marxist Indonesia. Composed by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a Marxist sympathiser and Indonesias most famed author, the quartet is a literary tetralogy which chronicles the struggles of the Indonesian people under Dutch rule: This Earth of Mankind (1982); Child of All Nations (1984); Footsteps (1985); and House of Glass (1988). There is more to these novels than a straightforward critique of colonialism; the quartet is so-called because it was conceived on Buru Island, where Pramoedya endured fourteen years as a political prisoner under Suhartos militant New Order. The quartets story is therefore inextricable from Pramoedyas own; the symbol of an individuals plight in an Indonesian society unwilling to move forward. Albeit banned for Marxist-Leninist content, since 1998 (after Suharto relinquished power) this momentous piece of buku-buku kiri (left-wing literature) has been rediscovered, and with it a sinister history that had been hidden from view since the notorious communist purge of 1965 (see Fig. 1). Considered a defining symbol of Indonesias resilience (Witoelar 2002, p.142), Pramoedyas work is beginning to command the attention it deserves, featuring in scholarship across a range of disciplines (Foulcher and Day 2002; Cheah 2003; Bahari 2007; Tsao 2012). The quartets potential is in its ability to paint a vivid picture of Indonesian identity, positioning Indonesia as part of a broader cultural fabric that connects Europe, colonialism and Asian nationalism in an era of rapid modernisation.

Fig.1: A hammer and sickle is ceremonially burnt in 1965 (Indonesia Digest 2012)

Theoretical context
Such is the semantic flexibility accorded to the term modernity that myriad conflicting definitions exist across the academic spectrum. In a bid to overcome outmoded Eurocentric positions, there has been a variety of attempts to recast modernity, whether as alternative modernities (Gilroy 1993), coeval modernities (Harootunian 2000), multiple modernities (Eisenstadt 2000) or successive modernities (Arnason 2002). My aim is not to linger on the differential aspects of each of these approaches, but to illustrate the underlying point that modernity is contested. Scholars are beginning to explore how modernity is contested in different social, cultural and political contexts. With such contention around this concept, the challenge is for academic studies to remain empirically grounded. In particular, the discourse of occidentalism is an area of cultural geography which has been encumbered by attempts to frame and understand modernity. The term itself connotes a variety of different meanings. Following Carriers (1995) definition, occidentalism is a discursive practice that examines the romanticised images, or stereotypes, of the West that are used by nonWestern cultures to define their cultural identity. Occidentalism is thus grounded in the notion of a Western other, essentially inverting the orientalist position proposed by Edward Said. The 9/11 attacks were challenging for occidentalist literature, spawning a discourse (re)centred on essentialised geographies, at the expense of global context (Aydin 2007). Subsequently, occidentalism for Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit (2004) represented a dehumanising portrayal of the West in the eyes of an alienated eastern other. It is important to move beyond such limited representations and towards a more complete picture of modernity. More generally, occidentalism is a body of scholarship whose aim is to expose and examine non-Western conceptions of modernity. It has exposed the complexity of the encounter between Asian and Western thought, and the difficulty of defining modernity either on Western or non-Western terms. The aim is to conceptualise how non-Westerners perceive, negotiate and articulate their identity with reference to an imagined Westernness (Ahiska 2003, p.368), thus enabling them to assert their subjectivity in that very encounter. Focusing on areas of the world labelled the non-West, scholars have recognised how indigenous groups are using the West as a tool for national development (Chen 1995; Bonnett 2002; Bonnett 2004). The West is thus disengaged from reality and transformed into an idea that is applied in different political contexts. Hence, it is vital not to dissolve the role of the fantasy (Ahiska 2003, p.368), which I believe offers a strong direction for occidentalist scholarship and particularly for this paper.
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Contribution
As a result of Suhartos falsification of history (Lane 2006a, online), there is a distinct lack of knowledge of Indonesias political history, and a scarcity of research undertaken in contrast to its Southeast Asian counterparts Singapore and Malaysia. Through his writing Pramoedya has assumed the burden of this past; a past hidden from our view for over thirty years. Analysing the Buru Quartet will therefore help to reveal the broader political and cultural struggle[s] (Bodden 2010, p.62) that afflicted Indonesia for much of this period. Hitherto there has been a neglect of focus on the ambivalences buried within these texts, studying which will uncover an intricate cognitive geography fraught with complex geographical representations. Considering unease as to how the concepts of the West and modernity should be understood, there is scope, particularly within the novel form, for a deeper exploration of occidentalism and non-Western constructions of the West. As a projection of Pramoedyas own reality, this tetralogy holds the potential to reveal much about the image and fantasy of the West in the non-Western psyche. The narrative space of a novel (its physical environment) has been interpreted trivially as a background against which the plot unfolds (Hones 2011), and, certainly in the case of occidentalism, overlooked as an empirical model. As a piece of social realist literature, the quartet can be used to examine the social, cultural and political composition of Indonesia at a time when Marxism was thriving. The complexity of Asian thought can be highlighted through the beliefs and desires of the novels protagonists. This more internal focus is important for occidentalist studies, for it allows us to uncover the actual makeup of contemporary modern societies (Schmidt 2006, p.86). Indeed fundamental to this makeup is the role that Marxism played in shaping modern Indonesia. As a leftist-nationalist Pramoedya employed Marxism as a political expression of non-Western aspiration. There has been a distinct lack of focus on the ways and reasons why non-Western Marxism is expressed, with academics instead keen to elucidate the differences between Western and nonWestern brands of Marxist thought, and the shortcomings of the latter (see Knight and Mackerras 1985; Knight 2007; Mintz 1959). I will instead use the ambivalences in Pramoedyas novels to examine the position of Marxist thought, or Marhaenism, in Indonesian culture.

Research objectives
My research seeks to question:

the picture of modernity which is being promoted in the Buru Quartet; how this enables Pramoedya to negotiate his relationship with the West; how Pramoedyas literary vision facilitates richer insight into non-Western constructions of the West; and what this reveals about studying non-Western modernity.

The danger with occidentalism (and especially with reading fiction) is that possibilities for dialogue within a comprehensive theoretical framework become limited, for difference is explained in terms of the specific underlying programme (Wagner 2010, p.12) and rendered too subjective for effective comparisons. I hope to address these issues by: ensuring a critical analysis of Pramoedyas texts, acknowledging that his ideas are part and parcel of a broader political discourse; contextualising the quartets narrative within the social, cultural and political tensions in postcolonial Indonesia; and critically assessing the benefits of reading fiction as an insight into nonWestern modernities, whilst acknowledging the limits of my perspective as a Western reader.

Structure
This paper consists of six chapters. The literature review spans two chapters; chapter one discusses theories and debates on non-Western modernity and the discourse of occidentalism, whilst chapter two explores the roles of Marx, Lenin and Mao and their influence on Indonesian Marxism. In the third chapter I discuss research methods and research ethics, before proceeding to the interpretation and analysis of the data, which covers chapters four and five. Finally, the paper concludes by discussing the significance of the findings.

Occidentalism and contested modernities

This paper deals with the interaction of a non-Western vision of modernity with the changing sociopolitical environment of postcolonial Indonesia. Consequently this chapter draws together the themes of occidentalism, modernity and the West. Examples of occidentalist literature are used to demonstrate the tensions involved when examining modernity in a non-Western context. Addressing these tensions is crucial to positioning the nature in which constructions of the West in the Buru Quartet are examined.

1.1

Contesting modernity: occidentalism and the non-Western

Such is the semantic flexibility accorded to the term modernity that myriad conflicting definitions exist across the academic spectrum. Historically, the notion of modernity has been conflated with the West, so as to imply that modernity is a Western invention, and the east a passive bystander (Bonnett 2002; also Aydin 2007). Contrary to spatialising modernity in this outmoded fashion, it is necessary to re-orientate our understandings and remove any certainty from our notions of social and cultural order. Central to this effort is the eradication of attitudes which elevate the West as some unstoppable, and allconquering social and economic fait accompli (Bonnett 2002, p.179). As Dirlik exhorts us to realise, modernity is
...dispersed globally, if not equally or uniformly, in transnational structures of various kinds, in ideologies of development, and the practices of everyday life. (1999, p.2)

There has been a variety of attempts to recast modernity, whether as alternative modernities (Gilroy 1993), multiple modernities (Eisenstadt 2000), coeval modernities (Harootunian 2000) or successive modernities (Arnason 2002). My aim is not to linger on the differential aspects of each of these approaches, but to illustrate the underlying point that modernity is contested. Scholars are beginning to explore how modernity is contested in different social, cultural and political contexts. The discourse of occidentalism is an area of cultural geography which has been encumbered by attempts to frame and understand modernity. This is a body of scholarship whose aim is to interpret and examine non-Western understandings of modernity. However, it has exposed the complexity of the encounter between Asian and Western thought, highlighting the difficulty of defining modernity either on Western or non9

Western terms. Occidentalism examines the romanticised images, or stereotypes, of the West that are employed by non-Western cultures to define their cultural identity (see Carrier 1995). For Xiaomei Chen, occidentalism represents a discursive practice that, by constructing its Western Other, has allowed the Orient to participate actively and with indigenous creativity in the process of self-appropriation (1995, p.2). Occidentalism is characterised by a belief that the West is not a Western invention, but has been constructed by indigenous groups through different social, cultural and political contexts (Bonnett 2002; Bonnett 2004). In this sense the West is seen through a non-Western lens; it does not reflect a geographical reality, but an imagined gaze integral to the construction of national and regional identities (Ahiska 2003, p.366). Modernity is therefore interpreted as a self-reflexive process, enmeshed in practices of cultural introspection.

1.2

Modernity, the West and civilisational context

Whether in the dichotomy between the traditional and the modern, the antagonistic relationship between the West and its others, or the emphasis on the linearity of processes of modernisation, the concept of modernity is highly contentious. 9/11 did not help in this regard; in attempting to theorise the attacks, a popular discourse of essentialised geographies re-emerged, at the expense of global context (Aydin 2007). Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalits (2004) Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of its Enemies is representative of such a trend. Occidentalism for Buruma and Margalit represents a dehumanising portrayal of the West in the eyes of an alienated eastern other. In the view of radical Islamic cultures, the West, as a result of its globalising tendencies, is seen to be decadent and materialistic, self-absorbed and nihilistic. It is posited as a prevailing force for modernity and situated in opposition to non-Western means of existence. Fetishising modernity this way, Silva and Vieira (2009, p.65) rather darkly remind us, leads to a fatally flawed understanding of global culture. Studies of modernity should not be founded on a grand narrative that fixes east and West as ideological and antagonistic concepts (Sun 2000). Rather, modernity can be approached as a culturally inscribed phenomenon, with its antecedents in different civilisational contexts. For instance, in Occidentalism: The Historical Fantasy of the Modern, Meltem Ahiska (2003) notes how Turkey has approached modernity in a creative and complex way, reflecting an amalgam of Islamic and Western ideals. Her paper focuses on the impending accession of Turkey to the European Union, which has been fraught with
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uncertainty. To be European, she observes, is equated with being Western, therefore Turkeys bid for accession represents a performance geared for the gaze of the West (p.355). However Turkey, as part of a historically Islamic modernity, conflicts with European ideals, which are grounded in Judaeo-Christian tradition, and for this reason Turkey has become increasingly self-conscious about its national identity. Ahiskas paper evidences the different ways modernity can be measured, thus the different ways a society can be modern. This more internal focus is important for it allows us to uncover the actual makeup of contemporary modern societies (Schmidt 2006, p.86). Admittedly there are problems in drawing distinctions between a European and a Turkish modernity. Marginalised due to the unlikelihood of Islamic integration, Turkey has essentially been dislocated from the constantly onward-moving chronological sequence of Western progress (Ahiska 2003, p.354). Such natural chronology is problematic, prioritising Western modernity and representing Turkey as a latecomer to the modernised pack. It represents the Wests way of saying not yet to somebody else, converting history into a waiting room in which other cultures are placed (Chakrabarty 2000, p.8). Such an analogy is useful, for it explains how the West has been approached as the yardstick against which claims to modernity are examined. It is important to disavow this chronology, and more significantly, the notion that other cultures would naturally meander towards an example set by the West. Modernity has divergent origins, and consequently it is expressed in unique, and notably conflicting, ways.

1.3

The idea of the West: tensions, histories, fantasies

This is not to imply that modernity is likeable to putty in the hands of non-Western cultures, which can be moulded as they see fit. The transition to modernity requires a reconstitution of social life, usually through the construal and invention of an elite, that realises what it is to be modern, or indeed free (Reed and Adams 2011, p.262). Such a transition is achieved through a restructuring of national culture, using the West as an evolving idea that is employed and deployed to structure different aspirations towards the modern (Bonnett 2005, p.510). Usually this is strikingly ambivalent, reflecting a deep sense of cultural dislocation, as the nation attempts to find itself as a people. Xiaomei Chen (1995) deals with such dislocation in her book Occidentalism: A Theory of Counterdiscourse in Post-Mao China, acknowledging a misunderstood engagement between the Chinese government and its citizens. Whereas the government espouse official
11

Occidentalism through appropriating Western ideals as a means of disciplining its citizens, the West is simultaneously used by the Chinese people to promote an anti-official Occidentalism; a reactive movement that evokes Western ideals in the name of political liberation. These contrasting articulations of national identity resonate strongly with Bonnetts (2002) claim that the 'translation' of the idea of the West creates...an arena of tension (p.170). This tension is encapsulated in how the West is projected across space, as different groups attempt to stake a claim to modernity. National culture is not something which merely comes into being. It is more an ideological battleground, on which constant battles are fought (Wallerstein 1991). Understanding the transition to modernity becomes even more complex when assessing the role of colonial history in shaping this process. Certainly Indonesias transition to modernity can be understood as emerging through the colonial encounter, and through a peoples resistance. Not that modernity was articulated as some sort of counter-response; usually the exchange between the colonial power and the indigenous culture is responsible for the construction of a multifaceted social imaginary. A self-conscious mode of cultural introspection ensues, as the people realises what it is that represents modern, a process which reflects the seductions as well as the antagonisms of colonial power (Gillen and Ghosh 2007, p.218). Perhaps one of the significant antagonisms here is that between the concreteness of colonial history and the abstractness of representations of the West in the non-Western imaginary. For Ahiska it is vital that occidentalists do not dissolve the role of the fantasy (Ahiska 2003, p.368), for the myriad meanings that the West could adopt in this imaginary are what position occidentalism as such an exciting field of study. However, albeit not dismissing the importance of highlighting other paths to modernity, we should not lapse into a decontextualized notion of plurality (Smith 2011, p.42) which exonerates the West from its historical role in the formation of global articulations of modernity. The notion that we should explore how modernity is contested by different indigenous groups is partial to such decontextualisation, for we begin to see non-Western modernity not in relation to the influence of the West, but as a cultural re-inscription of the modern detached from any historico-cultural context, transforming it into an insignificant, catch-all tautology of cultural diversity.

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1.4

Conceptualising modernity: history and social change

Following Delanty, non-Western modernity can be analysed to make larger claims about the nature and direction of social change. But first, he concedes, understandings of modernitys cosmopolitan character can be settled only by empirical research in a variety of different settings (2012, p.350-351). The former is also difficult to achieve when the latter is so culturally specific. In a nutshell, occidentalists follow a framework whereby difference is explained in terms of the specific underlying programme (Wagner 2010, p.12), and more often than not rendered incompatible with different geohistorical lineages. For Delanty (2012) such an atomistic approach is a result of the cosmopolitan turn, whereby scholars privilege modernitys many forms at the expense of the explanation of broader social change. (One may question whether such an explanation is even possible without reverting to a more normative direction of enquiry.) The distinction needs to be made between non-Western modernity and national identity. If we consider Arnasons notion that modernity emerges through different historicogeographical frameworks (in Blokker and Delanty 2011), then we can understand how one such framework concerns the Wests use as a tool to shape national identity in reaction to a broader historic colonial condition. And because the concept of modernity is so broad and elusive, we can take advantage of this and refine the framework through which it is examined. For instance, we can examine non-Western Marxist articulations of modernity within a broader colonial context, specifying how different national cultures are constructed around an anticolonial image of the West. Such analysis is amenable to comparison within this framework of modernity, whether at the individual, party-political or national scale. This approach liberates occidentalists from the burden of a global modernity (Dirlik 2003), around which it is impossible to position individual analyses.

1.5

Concluding remarks

In this review, with reference to examples of occidentalist literature, I have demonstrated the tensions involved when examining modernity in a non-Western context. Occidentalism is clearly an unsettled discourse, and such complexity emanates from the difficulty of positioning the concepts of the West and modernity within non-Western cultures. Whilst the imagined gaze may provide a focal point for understanding specific articulations of identity, this alone is unlikely to foster a worthwhile framework for analysis. The next chapter therefore embeds the research within a broader geopolitical and geohistorical
13

context, looking at how Pramoedyas thought has emerged through an Asian Marxist tradition, and more specifically through a communist literary culture in Indonesia.

14

The Marxist-indigenous paradox

This chapter discusses Indonesias broader communist history, so as to embed Pramoedyas views within a broader geopolitical and geohistorical context. The paradox implied is that Pramoedya uses Marxism as an expression of non-Western aspiration, hence this chapter examines Indonesias unique interpretation of Marxism, and the ambivalences involved in translating Marxism into a non-Western context. The chapter then proceeds to position Indonesian literature within this Marxist trend, through an examination of Indonesias communist literary wing, Lekra. But first it discusses the role of Marx, Lenin and Mao, and their significance to non-Western Marxism.

2.1

Colonial capitalism: the appeal of Marx

Marxism is a socialist theory articulated in opposition to European capitalism. Put concisely, Marx believed that exposing capitalisms oppressive nature would lead to the development of a social consciousness, as the proletariat became aware of its own marginalised position. Society would subsequently witness a struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the defeat of the latter which would usher in a socialist era (Marx and Engels 1848). Marx saw capitalism as a necessary predecessor to socialism, for he posited a historical materialist dialectic whereby history could only proceed through societal struggle. Albeit coined in and for Western Europe, Marxism had relevance beyond such contexts: firstly, the proletariat had an international character, as exploitation was an experience that people across borders shared; secondly, Marx offered a universal theory for humanity more generally (Knight and Mackerras 1985). The universality of such ideas explains Marxisms global appeal. Across Asia Marxist ideas were highly significant. Capitalism was innately tied to colonialism, in that colonies were commoditised by the ruling class. In this context, colonialism personified the fearsome child of capitalism. Because Das Kapital characterises Dutch colonialism as undisguised looting, enslavement and murder (Marx 1867, online), Marxism had popular appeal when introduced to Indonesia in 1914 (Mintz 1959). Indonesias awakening through growing socioeconomic unrest and the emergence of a Western-educated elite brimming with nationalist ideas had cultivated an ideal Marxist environment (ibid). However, Marxism was positioned uncomfortably within colonial Indonesia, for Marxs Asiatic mode of production disregarded the possibility of revolution through Asian economic (feudal, non-capitalist) structures (Knight and
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Mackerras 1985). Marx cautions of his theorys inapplicability to other (non-Western) contexts and that it does not provide the master-key of a historico-philosophical theory (1877, online). Marxism therefore inevitably faced problems in its translation for an Indonesian milieu a non-capitalist society with a largely peasant population.

2.2

Revolution in Asia: the role of Lenin and Mao

Whereas Marx viewed capitalism and imperialism as a necessary evil, Lenin asserted that countries could leap to communism, thus skipping an entire step of Marxist thought. Formulated in and for the USSR, Lenin posited that the communist revolution could be achieved through a small revolutionary vanguard, despite the absence of a significant working class (1917a). This more particular worldview was appealing to Indonesia, whose nationalist elite had emerged as a conscious political force in the fight for independence (Christie 2001). As the highest stage of capitalism (1917b, online), the fall of imperialism represented a central dynamic in the destruction of capitalist Europe, providing an important anticolonial role for the colonised of Indonesia. In Draft Theses on National and Colonial Questions, Lenin argues for
...the closest possible alliance between the West European communist proletariat and the revolutionary peasant movement in the East, in the colonies, and in the backward countries generally. (1920, online)

Marxs doubt concerning the prospects for Asian revolution contrasted to Lenins theory, which harnessed Asian nationalism as a force for worldwide social revolution, and situated the colonised peasantry as part of a revolutionary nucleus in the colonial world (Christie 1998, p.71). But Lenin viewed the peasantry as an atavistic people, whose potential could only be managed through bourgeois nationalist leadership. Moreover he only envisaged the alliance between Asian nationalists and communists in the West as a temporary arrangement, placing the broader interests of the oppressed above national aspirations (Lenin 1920); nationalism only had value in paving the way for the real struggle; the struggle for communism. It was Mao Tse-tung who first privileged the peasantry as the principal revolutionary class. Maos articulation of Marxist guerrilla warfare, waged across the peasant villages of China, culminated in the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. In

16

Maos words, his tactics are based on a peoples war; no army opposed to the people can use our strategy and tactics (1947, online). Mao articulated the struggle for communism in military terms, through a mass peasant revolt, in contrast to Lenins notion of leadership through a revolutionary vanguard. Maoism departs from Marxism-Leninism in that it juxtaposes the merits of rural life against the corruption of the city a breeding ground of treason and evil (Mao 1940, online). In The Present Situation and our Tasks, Mao (1947) outlined his key idea that the growing power of the rural areas would enable them to expand and engulf the cities. True to guerrilla philosophy, Maoism was not grounded in economic determinism so much as the belief that the history of China would be determined by the spiritual quality of its leaders (see Mao 1937). Considering the peasant-oriented nature of the revolution, Maoism was highly relevant to all colonies afflicted by feudalism. However, albeit widely emulated across Asia, and despite Indonesias support of Mao (Novack, Frankel and Feldman 1974), it is doubtful that Maoism shaped the specific strategy of Indonesian Marxists.

2.3

Internalising Marx: the PKI, Sukarno and Marhaenism

As the first communist party outside Russia, the PKI (Communist Party of Indonesia) developed a distinctly indigenous form of Marxism-Leninism. The term proletariat, so influential in Marxism, was detached from its original context. Instead founding chairman of the PKI, Semaoen, articulated the proletariat at the national level, describing the proletarianization of the Native, thus pitting the Indonesian Natives against the colonial bourgeoisie (Cribb 1985, p.254). Marxism-Leninism was also driven by romantic Javanese notions of the Indonesian village, and by references to the world of wayang theatre. This formed an integral part of Marhaenism; essentially, Marxism-Leninism tailored to Indonesian social conditions. Marhaenism was founded by Sukarno, first president of the Indonesian republic and close ally of the PKI. According to Saskia Wieringa, Sukarno cannot be understood without reference to the Javanese world of the wayang: Sukarno pictured himself as the character Bima, a heroic military figure in wayang theatre (2002, p.106). In Indonesias case, it is abundantly clear that Marxism did not represent an ideological straitjacket within and around which...revolutionary responses were formulated (Knight and Mackerras 1985, p.11). Instead, a colourful variety of Indonesian Marxism was constructed through the ideals of Javanese culture. Because describing nature through a set of laws was at odds with anything found in the Javanese cosmos (Teeuw

17

1972, p.111), Sukarno instead interpreted Marxism-Leninism through the social structures with which he was accustomed. Another fundamental difference between Indonesian Marxists and Marxism-Leninism was the role of nationalism not as a temporary instrument in the struggle for socialism, but as representative of Indonesias longer term interests. In this way Sukarno was an important synthesiser of nationalism and Marxism. In an essay entitled Nationalism, Islam and Marxism (1926), Sukarno located these three aspects centrally to Indonesias battle for independence. This unique brand of socialism was grounded in an unwillingness to cede nationalist principles and an overwhelming desire to overthrow colonialism (Mintz 1959). Considering why Asian Marxists, whether in Maos China or Sukarnos Indonesia, have not constructed a communist modernity on a scale that equalled the USSR, Knight (2007) suggests this is because they appropriated Marxism-Leninism as a theory of national and social revolution and not of broader socialist construction. But we should privilege Marhaenism as an indigenous brand of socialist theory which was tailored to Indonesian political conditions at the time; a critique of European colonialism through an indigenous anti-imperialist lens.

2.4

Lekra, the novel and Indonesian culture

In 1950 the PKI founded Lekra (Lembaga Kebudayaan Rakyat, or Institute of Peoples Culture), a radical arts movement which naturalised Marxist thought through artistic discourse (Cribb 1985). Instead of existing for entertainment (regarded by Lekra as dangerously reactionary), the arts were championed as a means for young Indonesians to accumulate a greater understanding of the social fabric of the country, promoting a peoples democratic republic a reflection of their resentment towards the weakness of older political leaders, who failed at such a feat (ibid, p.260). Lekra was therefore a dynamic arts movement, but with a militant edge, through which radical nationalist ideologies were mobilised. It was through this organisation that Pramoedya Ananta Toer became a key writer of his era. Members were encouraged to produce works which challenged modern forms of imperialism, speaking through the experience of the common people and calling for social equality the fundaments of social realism that defined Lekras work (Bodden 2010). Based on Marxist teachings, it was seen to be the responsibility of this exclusive bourgeois culture to learn from the peasant and to know the reality of the peasants life (Foulcher 1981, p.14). The success of this approach
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throughout the 1950s confirmed the PKIs belief that realism was the only model which could mobilise the people and induce a Marxist history. Marxist literary critics see the novel as a mirror of society; in this manner, tensions that exist in the novel reflect societal tensions in the real world (Eagleton 2002). Of these critics the most famous was Georg Lukcs, whose seminal work The Theory of the Novel cast huge influence in literary theory. Albeit conscious that the novelistic form embodied an instrument of bourgeois social power, grounded in the authors journeying toward himself (1963, p.80), Lukcs held a belief in the emancipatory potential of the novel in revealing the totality of social relations. Accomplished realists, according to Lukcs, could adapt the novel so that it no longer embodied a bourgeois form but disclosed the totality of the capitalist world as understood by the subject. Ultimately, the novel could serve as a material basis for political ideology, constructing a natural life worthy of man a notion he later admitted was based on a highly naive and totally unfounded utopianism (p.20). Albeit a contradictory account, Lukcs work nonetheless provided the foundation of social realism: the belief that the antagonism of the capitalist world could be represented through the cultural form. The single-most important weakness of Lukcs work is in the way he overlooks the role of the novels subject, their narrative voice and viewpoint, which in Landas (2004) words, constitute a shaping principle and revelation of creative subjectivity (online). Particularly in Lekra fiction, the thought of the subject is likely to be deeply ambivalent, with the complex relationship between Europe, capitalism and colonialism reflecting the contradictions of [the] historical age which are responsible for the formation of the subject (Blanc 1997, online). Albeit encouraged to commit to cultural patriotism and to develop the kepribadian nasional (national character), the obvious paradox in play was that Lekras strategy was underlined by a European political model (Bodden 2010). Lekras literary productions were therefore fascinating and skilfully written works that revealed much about the culture, issues, [and] preoccupations of the times (ibid, p.52). The combative efforts of Lekra throughout the 1950s affirm Wallersteins remark that culture is a battleground perhaps, in the truest sense. Lekra was certainly vociferous and uncompromising in its approach, even accused of Stalinism in its resolve to enforce a correct state of culture (Crossette 1992, online). Lekras actions and hostility towards those on the political right became the focus of military action. In 1965 the PKI was
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disbanded and its leaders, and key constituents of Lekra, killed or imprisoned under Suhartos infamous communist purge, a result of the 30th September Movement. Under the newly inaugurated President Suharto, the communist left was removed from the political sphere and their activities banned from public discussion (for discussion of 1965 see Putra 2003; Zurbuchen 2002). In 1998, following the Reformasi and collapse of Suhartos New Order, the re-emergence of buku-buku kiri (left-wing literature) generated a considerable public buzz (Putra 2003). If the potential of Marxist literature is in revealing the power struggles within society, then such potential is multiplied in discussion of an intricate political history that has been hidden from view for over thirty years.

2.5

Concluding remarks

This chapter has provided an outline of Indonesias broader communist history, in the hope of providing a useful context for the forthcoming analysis. It is certainly not hard to understand why Marxism-Leninism was employed as a strategy across colonial Asia, particularly in Indonesia where Marxism could theoretically flourish. But Marxism was clearly positioned uncomfortably within Indonesia, no more so than after 1965 when it was officially banned by Suharto. These struggles are encapsulated in Lekra literature, which has immortalised this period of enigmatic Marxist history, and which when unpacked, has potential to reveal the power struggles that writers faced. Attention will now shift to the methods which shaped the analysis of the Buru Quartet.

20

Methodology

In light of chapter one, it is hardly a revelation that occidentalism suffers from a lack of methodological clarity (Tate 2005, p.345). Though researchers draw from an extensive fountain of knowledge, we fail to cast a critical gaze on these sources (ibid). Moreover, complacency characterises our thought; we fail to consider the limits of our own perspective (Young 1995). In the following I offer a detailed account of the process which I undertook to conduct this research. I then move on to discuss the ethical concerns in conducting research of this variety, in the hope of addressing the aforementioned issues.

3.1

Literary geography: interpretation and analysis

In a methodological context, my research falls firmly within the realm of literary geography. This is an academic field which combines literary analysis with a geographical perspective, described by Friedman as a fluid, relational approach (cited in Hones 2011, p.688); a complex, interpretative strategy grounded in a multiplicity of textual geographies. I analysed the quartet through a five-step process (see Appendix 1). Having read through the novels, I isolated and colour-coded key themes which could be used as a focus for analysis (1): constructions of the West; use of Javanese and Javanism; political ideology; representations of the colonial encounter; and references to non-Western modernity. Because such broad themes required moderating, I highlighted dominant buzzwords, phrases and discourses (2) so as to understand the ways in which these themes were approached in the quartet (for instance, how the West is constructed and why, or how the author problematises non-Western approaches to modernity). This allowed me to connect key themes together (3a), which I then combined with relevant concepts drawn from narrative theory (3b) (definitions adapted from Phelan 2005 unless stated otherwise): authorial audience: audience for whom the text is intended (1980s Indonesia) narrative audience: observer role adopted by the reader within the fictional world (a subject living in the Indies between 1898 and 1918) narrative voice: the quartets narrator intradiagetic embedding: using language appropriate to his/her character (Herman, Jahn and Ryan 2005) narrative universe: the counterfactual worlds constructed by the subject (Ryan 2010)

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As an example, constructions of the West were part of the narratives universe, and Javanism was demonstrated through intradiagetic embedding. Key to understanding the quartet was the link between the narrative and authorial audiences, and this required understanding the environment in which the Buru Quartet was written. I therefore crossreferenced my analysis notes with notes taken from speech and interview transcripts (4) (Appendix 2 includes extracts from those quoted in this paper). Drawing the themes, concepts and authorial context together (5), I could now understand how the author used the quartets narrative to position his own concerns. The analysis chapters were based on a combination of geographical themes and literary concepts, and structured in different, albeit complementary ways. I based chapter four on Brosseaus (1994) approach, privileging the structure of the novel, its composition and characters as a means of deconstructing the brand of Marxism appropriated in Pramoedyas novels. This was achieved by exploring the Marxist-indigenous paradox, firstly through the protagonists idealisation of the West, and then through the role of Javanism in the quartet. Chapter five was based on Landos (1996) more receptive approach, which interprets Pramoedyas novels as a source of environmental knowledge through exploring behavior, sensations, ideas, feelings, hopes and faith (p.10). Drawing upon the concept of narrative universe, this chapter was based on aesthetic readings of the quartets fantasised colonial imagery. Key to this chapter was the connection between the narrative and authorial audiences: constructions of the West and representations of the colonial encounter could be analysed and set against Indonesia at the time the novels were conceived, eighty years on. Across both chapters I employed a selection of representative quotes which typify the thought of the central protagonist, his social position and his political outlook. I privileged the key protagonist because he is based on the journalist and pioneer of early Indonesian nationalism Tirto Adhi Soerjo (Lane in Pramoedya 1982) and, as demonstrated in the analysis, therefore represents an ideal historical type which Pramoedya uses to play around with Indonesian history (other characters are quoted, but to a lesser extent and only to illuminate the novels broader Western imagery). Aside from references to Javanism, it was not appropriate to undertake an in-depth analysis of the language, for my reading of the quartet was based on the English translations, and not on the language of Bahasa Indonesia, whose rich texture of cultures, languages, forms of address, dialects, beliefs, and milieus of the Indies Pramoedya so brilliantly evokes (Lane in Pramoedya 1984, p.5).
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3.2

Of whose Indonesia do you speak?

Chen (1995) exhorts us to realise that whether selecting data or structuring narratives knowledge is also constructed around the researchers beliefs. In this section I therefore discuss the all-important question of the location of meaning. Considering that Pramoedyas ideas proceed from a distinct culture from Indonesias colonial past (see section 2.4) I faced an important dilemma in positioning my analysis. Where does the location of meaning reside: in the intention of the author, the words on the page, or the interpretation produced by a reader? (Hones 2008, p.1310) I observed that Indonesia as described in Pramoedyas novels cannot be detached from authorial voice. This is not so much about Indonesia, but a cognitive geography through which Indonesia is constructed. I therefore examined Pramoedyas sense of place...[within a] fictional setting (Rundstrom cited in Hones 2011: 686). This facilitated powerful insight into his ideas, and the identities which he constructs. The predicament I faced concerned whether I should, as Chatterjee (1986) proposes, remain charitable in my interpretation and privilege the authenticity of the ideas in question, or, on the other hand, be more critical of the positionality of the subject and the discourse confining them (Tate 2005). As demonstrated in the previous chapter, such ideas emerge from a distinct geopolitical/historical context. It is certainly the latter option which appealed to me, for Tate (2005) notes that a background in critical geopolitics is useful; drawing upon this I was positioned to explore how Pramoedyas ideas may not be representative of reality but mobilised to pursue political interests (Toal 1999). This would entail: firstly, reading the Buru Quartet against the grain of its implied authorial audience (Hones 2008, p.1306) that is, Indonesian youth in 1980s Indonesia; secondly, destabilising our understanding that such texts are representative of social realism; and finally, albeit most obviously, challeng[ing] essentialised representations of the West as homogenous and as temporally and geographically fixed (Tate 2005, p.348). I questioned whether such an approach was too convenient, for it would be failing to take into account my own voice. For Sharp, as the texts geography is contingent upon the interaction between text and the readers imagination, how this geography is interpreted, or affected admittedly, by someone not well-versed in literary criticism should be given serious consideration (cited in Hones 2011). Such issues are magnified when the literature being studied is non-Western in origin. Admittedly, these are representations as witnessed
23

from an outsider; a Westerner looking in me, the reader, but equally the translator of these works, Max Lane, whose English interpretation dilutes the rich texture of the Bahasa Indonesia language. Emerging from such a distanced reader audience means that I cannot claim to speak for Pramoedya, and inevitably my gaze will have a Western tint. The following analysis is therefore a result of complex processes of (re)negotiation with the text; I neither sought to adopt a wholly etic perspective, nor to claim an emic perspective (it was impossible to do so). Rather, I positioned myself in a comfortable medium: giving voice to Pramoedya, whilst remaining objective within a critical geopolitical context.

3.3

Concluding remarks

I hope to have conveyed a cautious, transparent methodology one which benefits all parties involved: myself as a researcher, and how I constructed my analysis; the subject, whose ideas were given voice but within an academic perspective; and finally the reader, who will understand the context in which the study was formulated. Focus will now shift to the analysis of the quartet.

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Tensions in the Buru Quartet: Marxism, the West and Javanism

This chapter explores the tensions which arise from fashioning an indigenous modernity through a non-Western interpretation of Marxism, asking how the Buru Quartet articulates a construction of Marxist philosophy unique to Indonesias sociopolitical environment. Naturally there is a dialectical Marxian undertone to the quartet, in a way that redresses the mistakes of Indonesian history (Pramoedya 2000, online). This chapter examines the ways in which the central Marxist-indigenous paradox is drawn out through the novels: first through the chief protagonists idealisation of the West; and then through the use of Javanism in the quartets discourse. Before doing so, I briefly outline the quartets synopsis (referring only to characters relevant to the analysis).

4.1

Synopsis

Set between 1898 and 1918, a turbulent period in Indonesias political history, the Buru Quartet chronicles the nationalist awakening of the Indies from the slumber of colonial occupation. The quartet functions through a dual narrative: the first three novels through the narrative voice of Minke, and the final novel through his adversary and captor, Pangemanann. Minke is a young, idealistic writer and the first Native to have enjoyed, and been inspired by, a privileged European education. Based on the journalist and pioneer of early Indonesian nationalism, Tirto Adhi Soerjo, Minkes character is used to represent a distinct historical type: a subject caught between their own idealism, advancement in an era of intense modernisation, and the hostility of the colonial administration that exploits the Indonesian people. This Earth of Mankind follows Minke as a naive eighteen year old, charting his development from an atomistic individual to a subject more aware of colonial reality. Minke becomes enchanted by Nyai Ontosoroh, whose confidence as a Native with European knowledge serves as a source of inspiration, and maturation, for Minke throughout the quartet. Albeit scorned as the concubine of a Dutchman, her business acumen, adherence to European customs and contempt for colonial authority attest a more advanced way of life developed in defiance of her oppressors. In Child of All Nations Minke continues to face trials, both personal and political. Working for a Dutch newspaper, he encounters Khouw Ah Soe, an illegal Chinese immigrant who risks his life to enter the Indies to spread the word of Chinas awakening. But his article on Soe is refuted on the grounds that it opposes colonial interests, and he becomes aware of his own
25

marginalised position. Subsequently we witness Minkes becoming, as he emerges as his own personality, aware of his historical objectives. As the quartet progresses into Footsteps, embryonic manifestations of Indonesian identity begin to materialise, through demands for liberty, equality and fraternity the ideals of the French Revolution held so highly in the mindset of Minke, but which are mocked by colonialism. Minkes enquiries into the grim reality of colonial life inform the way out for him and his people. But the Natives continue to stagnate in their old ways, and he strives to free them from their outmoded, Javanese beliefs. Minkes actions are therefore intrinsic to the path of Indonesias emerging consciousness. The becoming modern of the Indies is witnessed in Minkes unification of the people through modern political organisation albeit through ambiguous conceptions of a national community. But such efforts are crushed by the firm hand of colonial rule, and through his arrest and exile we come to realise Minkes insignificance in the face of broader capitalist structures. The real irony in this quartet emerges, as Minkes soul is destroyed by the Europe whose ideas had set his thought free, and whose symbolism was evoked as a marker for the future of the Indies. The final novel, House of Glass, is narrated by the Sorbonne-educated Native colonial policeman assigned to Minkes case, Pangemanann. This narrative voice is one with which we are not acquainted; Pangemanann intrudes into the world known only between the reader and Minke. Minkes absence gives the appearance that colonialism has prevailed, emphasising the marginality of Minkes consciousness (Foulcher 1981). Presenting the fourth novel through Pangemanann is a crucial technique of social realism, which contrasts the consciousness of Minke to a reality which is independent of him. Through Pangemanann we discover the truth behind Minkes arrest, and the plot behind his downfall; a very dystopian projection of the future of the Indies. Minkes betrayal by his own nation mirrors Pramoedyas disillusionment with postcolonial Indonesia, which through a militaristic dictatorship, has betrayed itself.

4.2

The Marxist-indigenous paradox

Minke, Pangemanann (discussed in chapter 5) and the host of supporting characters echo the authors ambivalence, in that they question the meaning of their existence in a troublesome colonial society. Modernity is determined through an attitude of questioning the present (Gaonkar, 1999, p.13), yet lots of the questions asked are left unanswered. The quartet is certainly focused around the primary Marxist-indigenous paradox, but not in the
26

way imagined. Contrary to privileging the Indonesian-ness of the quartet by virtue of its departure from orthodox Marxist ideology, there is a more complex set of processes which require examination: Minkes idealisation of the West; and the ironic role of Javanism in the quartet. 4.2.1 Minke and the allure of the West Albeit implied through the novels summary, viewing the Buru Quartet simply as a product of the authors disillusionment with colonial culture misses the broader point that it promotes Europe as the source of Indonesias vitality. It is important to question why, as a piece of socialist realist literature, Europe is idealised in this fashion. In doing so we should consider Indonesia at the time the quartet was conceived. Pramoedya specifies the quartets role as
...a literary reality that contains within it a reorientation and evaluation of civilization and culture, which is precisely not contained in the historical reality. (1992, online)

Pramoedya uses characters in the quartet to enquire as to why history unfolded the way it did. For instance, Minkes questioning of Indonesias modernisation echoes Pramoedyas criticism of the way Indonesia modernised. As a personification of Indonesian nationalism, Pramoedya is at liberty to use Minke to play around with Indonesias past, and through Minkes choices and actions, decide Indonesias fate. Moreover, through exploring Minkes disputes with other characters throughout the novels, we can specify how Pramoedya uses different voices, and therefore contrasting political perspectives, to focus his own concerns. Europe is presented as the backdrop against which Minkes aspirations are managed, providing a source of frustration throughout the quartet. Central to Minkes attraction to European ideas is the sense that they provide the pathway to becoming modern. But Minke is aware that he does not quite know what modern entails:
Modern! How quickly that word had surged forward and multiplied itself like bacteria throughout the world. (At least, that is what people were saying.) So allow me to use this word, though I still dont fully understand its meaning. (1982, p.18)

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As the first Native to be educated, Minke bases his idea of modernity on hearsay from his European peers: his epistolary correspondence with Dutch friend Miriam de la Croix; and his verbal exchanges with Dutch journalist and liberal Ter Haar. The views of these European characters offer Minke a clearing through which to gaze towards this space which he holds so highly; except that because he is not from Europe he does not appreciate the dynamic contexts in which modernity was being articulated. Throughout the quartet Minke refers to the ideals of the French Revolution, liberty, equality and fraternity. He sees them as true freedoms, albeit warned by his partner Ang San Mei in Footsteps not to misinterpret the meaning of liberty. Though Mei speaks from a more conventional Asian position (that of the Asian values angle, whereby Asian political figures pit the decadence of Western culture against the wholesome nature of the Asian individual), Minke has internalised an idyllic, mythic image of Europe as if it has remained unchanged since this period of social reform in the eighteenth century. His fascination with Nyai Ontosoroh and her disavowal of feudal customs reflects a belief that the Western world can be symbolically evoked as a marker for the future of the Indies; a belief in European values. In Footsteps, when Ontosoroh moves to Paris, in the quest to discover whether there really is a country where all stand equal before the law, thus whether there really exist[s] such beauty on this earth of mankind (1985, p.204-205), the fine life of Paris is confirmed through reports that things are so much quieter here, no evil and barbarity. (p.240) This was Europe in the early twentieth century; a capitalist space in a period of turbulent political upheaval and the object of Marxist discontent. Such ambivalence, I believe, is a reflection of Pramoedyas own position. Lekra writers were encouraged to challenge colonial, and therefore Western, culture. But the quartets rosetinted view of Europe is used as a deliberate contrast, to show that it was Indonesian culture that was the focus of Pramoedyas disillusionment. Juxtaposed against his own grim existence under President Suharto, in what should have been a free Indonesia, Minkes positivity is used mockingly as a comment that Indonesia fared better under colonial rule, and therefore as a nation under Western influence. Europe is thus transformed into the archetypal utopia, where the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity exist; a refuge from the ugly reality of Indonesias neocolonial present, where the implementation of such ideals Pramoedya knew was impossible. (This argument is elaborated in chapter 5, where I discuss how Pramoedya constructs the West against his own neocolonial reality).
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Tsao (2012, p.126) concedes that the same hunger for individualistic gain that epitomised imperialist ambition characterised Indonesias national struggle. This is the next point of interest. Certainly in the earlier novels, and to an extent throughout the quartet, Minke refuses to detach himself from capitalist culture. He feels a sense of prestige as an educated Native, regardless of whether such prestige has been indoctrinated through the colonial educational system. He naturally identifies with capitalist European culture, exploiting his knowledge of the stylish Dutch language as a position of status, working for a prestigious Dutch newspaper. In Child of All Nations, Minkes friends Kommer and Jean Marais challenge him to detach from the colonial world and instead write in Javanese or Malay, to identify with his own people. He is hurt by these words, but his initial reluctance to do so reinforces an enduring preoccupation with obtaining a Western lifestyle, through the advancement of his own career. Lukcs may be right in declaring that a Marxist conscience only emerges from a wholly ethical position; if right and custom are identical with morality (1963, p.65). Through Minkes lustful desires we can see how Indonesias political consciousness is constantly clouded by the allure of the West, inhibiting the emanation of a moral position. Pramoedya is therefore criticising the hypocrisy of the Indonesian Marxists who, albeit forging a national consciousness, did so through embracing a culture of colonial paternalism (1999, online). As the first educated Native, Minke has internalised the lack that Dutch civilisation in particular, and Western enterprise more generally, projects on the Natives conventional way of life, a gulf which can only be filled by Western values. Dutch colonialism represents, in the words of Ahiska (2003, p.353), a symptom of internalized inferiority; it has inscribed upon the space of the Indies a sense of devaluation in ones own culture. Albeit alienated from his own present, Minke has a certain hunger for the culture of the colonising nation. Ontosoroh and others do highlight the possibility to Minke of an alternative, non-European modernity. Khouw Ah Soe declares that Indonesia, like China, can be equal with Europe without becoming Europe, as Japan is doing (1984, p.68). But part of the dominant rhetoric throughout the quartet is that Europe is superior to the Indies. Returning again to the conditions in which the quartet was conceived, Pramoedya sees his incarceration under independent rule as a betrayal of Indonesian nationalism; he had been imprisoned as a colonised subject but did not anticipate the same treatment in independent Indonesia under an Indonesian government (in Rush 1995, online, emphasis added). Such compulsion to glorify the West reflects an ironic admission that Dutch civilisation may
29

have been more civilised than life under indigenous rule, for The Dutch fed their prisoners reasonably well and, compared to other jailers later in Pramoedyas life, treated them humanely (ibid, online). This is not to state that Pramoedya defends colonialism; indeed this is not a Stockholm syndrome for the colonial era. But through such idealisation we realise that the quartet is not about Indonesias betrayal by the Dutch, for colonialism is accepted as a (somewhat negative) consequence of European ambition. Instead, the quartet is about Indonesias betrayal of itself. In an article entitled My Apologies, in the Name of Experience, Pramoedya lambasts his own people for not want[ing] to face reality. He declares that he only learned of his peoples kampung (isolated, insecure, and threatened) qualities through Western teachings, which ever more forcefully, made me free myself from the kampung civilization and culture of my own ethnic origin. He continues: The masturbatory stories of the wayang, which flaunt the superiority of Java, must be abandoned for the reality of Western supremacy. It is the duty of his people to slip their shackles, for only those who manage to do so are the nations that rule the world. (1992, p.2-4) It is not the Dutch he blames for conquering his civilisation, but his peoples ignorance for allowing it to happen. This leads us nicely onto the second part of the paradox, the role of Javanism in the quartet. 4.2.2 Pensive parody: Javanism and Javaneseness in the Buru Quartet Indonesias problems are not blamed on colonialism but on Javas culpability in allowing colonialism to flourish. In the quartet Pramoedya uses Minke to explore how references to Javanism obscure his peoples worldview, and through the quartets intradiagetic narrative, the world of Indonesia is interpreted through Javanese dialect, simile and metaphor. Minke employs his European education to disavow feudal customs, but in the same instance reverts to Javanism to help explain the colonial present (as was the method of Marhaenists). The latter aspect of such a complex persona is used to elucidate the problematic role of Javanese culture in Indonesia. I call this a pensive parody, which in itself represents a paradox: on the surface Javanism is emulated as an act of mockery, but at a more profound level reflects the nations struggle with its heritage. Albeit having emerged as a politically conscious people, Indonesia is unable to free itself from the shackles of tradition.

30

Modern for Minke casts something of an enigma, and this confusion causes him to revert to a Javanese mindset, comparing the passions of humanity to the wayang of ages past (1984, p.285). Unable to explain his wife Annelies deportation at the end of This Earth of Mankind, and perplexed by such hostility from a supposedly modern people, he attributes Annelies misfortune to the god of time and destruction, Batara Kala:
Whether light or shadow, nothing can escape being pushed along by Batara Kala. No one can return to his starting point. Maybe this mighty god is the one whom the Dutch call the Teeth of Time. He makes the sharp blunt, and the blunt sharp; the small are made big and the big made small. All are pushed on towards that horizon, while it recedes eternally beyond our reach, pushed on towards annihilation. (1984, p.14)

Batara Kala is therefore employed to explain how Annelies destiny is out of her own hands just as Marxists would argue that Annelies is treated as a commodity; her existence subordinate to the power of capital. Throughout the quartet modernity is presented as an imminent choice for Minke; a dynamic inscribed on the world of Java or the world of Europe:
It was true that I didnt appreciate European music as much as I did gamelan. European music stimulated in me many different thoughts. Gamelan music instead enveloped me in beauty, in a harmony of feeling that was without form, in an atmosphere that rocked my emotions to an eternal sleep. (1985, p.201)

This is effectively an admission that Minke is bound to his Javanese roots. Though his purpose is to locate a socialist utopia, such loyalty to Javanese culture will impede this ambition, for utopia exists in this harmony of feeling that was without form. Such vacillation reflects the broader notion that Indonesia can either remain in its old ways or break out of its cultural mould. As the personification of Indonesian nationalism, the mistakes Minke makes reflect the mistakes that Indonesia made. His lasting references to Javanism are a double-edged criticism on the nations refusal to push forward. In true folklore convention (Foulcher 1981, p.2), Minke is elevated as the one who must find the way out for the Indies, and so is likeable to a hero of traditional wayang theatre. Annelies too is compared to a character of ancient Javanese legend: She must have been more beautiful and arresting than Jaka Tarubs angel in the legends of Babad Tanah Jawi

31

(1982, p.44). Pramoedya insists that he long abandoned the Wayang concepts, adding that he has
...cast off all Javanese influences, not merely the Wayang alone, but all Javanese influences...While I have consciously used Javanese elements, I have done so with a critical eye, not under its influence. (1996, online)

The quartets references to Javanism therefore function as a self-destructive mechanism that slowly brings about the death of the Indonesian nation. Through such discourse we come to realise how Javanism becomes the status quo, with the formation of Indonesia linked to the rigid social hierarchy of feudal Java (Tong 1999, online). Because Marhaenism was constructed through indigenous experience, such references particularly to the wayang serve as a critique of the indigenous form of Marxism that was appropriated and applied in Indonesia. One of the problems with Javanism which Pramoedya describes is the level of subservience which it commands from the Indonesian people. Sukarnos appropriation of the character Bima is particularly ironic, for in the Dewa Ruci wayang play,
Bima submits to his teacher's commands despite their obvious intention of bringing about his death...an ideal example of the degree of loyalty expected in such a relationship. (Brownlee 1998, online)

Despite attempting to push Indonesia in a new direction, Indonesian Marxists were encumbered by an obsession with tepo seliro the Javanese concept of knowing ones place in a feudal hierarchy of power (McCarthy 1998, online). This is the basis of the oppression of the Javanese people through the ages, whether in their exploitation by the Dutch colonialists or their persecution under the neocolonial New Order. The bottom line for Pramoedya is to be rational and disavow Javanese mysticism (in McCarthy 1998). Pramoedya likens kampung civilisation to a comic-book drama (1992, p.12), and one particular incident in Footsteps provides a comic glimpse of the kampung culture of the Indies. An educated Native called Abdoel Moeis is seen wearing European attire, and is roughed up by a group of Native youths. Reports of this incident generate huge controversy; though most blame the youth for denying Javanese tradition, others condemn the assailants for this unwarranted response. The assailants are imprisoned, and

32

Bandung becomes awash with youths wanting to buy pairs of shoes no longer seen as sacred objects but a means of protecting your feet. For Minke, This was such a small incident! Such a minor affair! But it made so many things clear. (1985, p.349) This more rational mindset marked the dawn of a new era in the Indies, when Native youths were able to exercise their rights through projections of the modern.

4.3

Concluding remarks

In reconciling both parts of the paradox, it is first clear that the world of colonial Indonesia is far from an accurate representation of Western culture, instead embodying an ugly amalgamation of Dutch exploitation and Javanese mysticism; secondly, and subsequently, the quartet exhorts Indonesians to disavow the antiquated Javanese mindset and look to the West for its future. For Pramoedya, colonialism represents part of a historical vicious circle of kampung civilization and culture without reorientation inward, or outward either; a mould which can only be broken by re-evaluating Javanese culture through the Western concept of Aufklrung, or the enlightenment (Pramoedya 1992, online). Marxism appealed to Pramoedya, for Marxist teaching could help effect Indonesias disenchantment with Javanese mysticism and offer a more rational mode of thought. The quartet also challenges the Suharto regime in drawing parallels between the coercive colonial administration and the self-serving, militaristic and inexorably Javanese, New Order vision. According to Pramoedya, Whatever those in power ask, Indonesians find it too easy to simply be hypocritical and say yes (1999, online). The quartet thus presents a strike on the nations consciousness, in a bid to shake it from its cultural stupor. Traditional Asian values rhetoric has been inverted so as to highlight the vitality of European values to Indonesias longer term interests. Moreover, the eighty-year gap between the quartets narrative and authorial audiences is used to highlight the fact that Indonesia is no better now than it was under colonial rule; a society bent on remaining in a state of animal savagery (Tsao 2012, p.116). Focus will now shift to the ways in which Pramoedya constructs the West against his own supposedly neocolonial reality, through a psychological rupture between Europe and European colonialism.

33

Between Europe and colonialism: understanding Western imagery in the Buru Quartet

As demonstrated in the previous chapter, the Buru Quartet offers far from a traditional reflection of anticolonial sentiment. The concept of modernity cannot be understood merely through a Marxian worldview, but as a psychological phenomenon and through the desire of the Native subject. Pramoedya (1998a) declares that Literary work may contain some political matters, but it is always part of the personality of the writer (p.3). Exploring Minkes and Pangemananns crises in identity therefore offers a useful means of constructing how Pramoedya feels and thinks. In doing so I introduce the concept of the duality of Europe; a psychological device employed to safeguard his own position between Indonesia and the West.

5.1

Caught between two worlds: the duality of Europe

As part of a novels narrative space, the novels narrative universe constitutes all the counterfactual worlds constructed by characters as beliefs, wishes, fears, speculations, hypothetical thinking, dreams, and fantasies (Ryan 2010, online). In a literary context, it is useful to think of Pramoedya as the creator of a world; a mystical fusion of the writers self with an Absolute Creator (Cheah 2003, p.261). This is a fundamental shaping principle of the novel. As discussed in chapter one, occidentalism is a study of the romanticised images of the West, and through examining how the West is evoked we can determine how Pramoedya constructs a creative adaptation of the Western other which is specific to a unique political geography. Let us not forget that, albeit depicting reality, the world of the quartet is imagined, allowing Pramoedyas self and its other to be distorted. Jarvis (in Patke 2005) notes that
The other...retains the capacity not just to inspire fear, but to tempt and fascinate. Disgust and desire can be very close. (p.5)

Such an antithesis is what can make occidentalism such a fascinating subject of study. I will explore the temporality of the constructions of modernity in the quartet, asking how Europe is imagined in and against Pramoedyas own reality. Such an approach, to my knowledge, has not been undertaken in previous literature on the Buru Quartet. But it is crucial to understanding Pramoedyas sense of cultural dislocation.

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Minkes experience of modernity is embedded within a larger historical framework that connects Holland, capitalism and the Indies. The West is presented as a fantasy space, which is either recognised as a model as in European values or disavowed as a threat to cultural identity as in colonial coercion. But there is a certain duality concerning the way Europe is presented in the Buru Quartet. Such duality forms the basis of the characters ambivalence to the West throughout. One of the more obvious expressions of this duality is seen where Minke remarks how he was taught by friend Jean Marais to distinguish between colonial Europe and free Europe (1985, p.242). Making this distinction separates and protects Jeans Europeanness from colonial affairs, the latter which constitute a negative manifestation of the former, but in a different worldly context. Upon closer examination it becomes clear that colonial Europe and free Europe represent two very different things in the quartet, reflecting a psychological rupture between Europe and its more formidable colonial offspring. Continuous contrast, between Europe as a colonial power and Europe in the sense of values and identity, forms the grounds of Pramoedyas social imaginary. It is through this duality that Pramoedya espouses Marxist ideals in a unique way. Where the quartet refers to the character of Europe, he connects it to this historic other, and by doing so distinguishes it from the fight against colonialism. This strategy allows Pramoedya to indulge in the Western fantasy whilst remaining faithful to the peoples struggle. On a basic level, such duality highlights the duplicitous implementation of Western principles in a colonial space. But as we come to see, this imaginary offers a crucial means of asserting his subjectivity in the encounter with his neocolonial oppressor, Suharto. I re-emphasise that this section examines the counterfactual worlds of the subject. The quartet constructs a deliberately exaggerated juxtaposition; the fairyland of Europe set against the monstrosity of European colonialism. These are not tangible constructions, but remind us, as stated in the literature review, that the West also and vitally so serves as a figure of the imagination, and that the imagined gaze is integral to the construction of national identity. 5.1.1 Europe: an eighteenth century idyll

Ahiska (2003, p.367-8) notes that occidentalism operates in the mythical time of reified representations, whereby The past reappears as the desirable future in the Occidentalist fantasy. Through a resolute belief in the potential of Aufklrung for the milieu of

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Indonesia, Pramoedya fixes a static construction of Europe from the eighteenth century where the concept first emerged. Throughout the quartet, Pramoedya persistently evokes the historicity of the European other. This is achieved through Minkes idealisation of the French Revolution. In This Earth of Mankind Minke confesses telling his mother excitedly about what my schoolteachers had said...about the French Revolution, its meaning, its basic principles (p.128). On repeat occasions these principles liberty, equality, and fraternity are cited as a marker for the future of the Indies. By evoking Europe in this historical context, Pramoedyas imaginary displaces Europe from its present and instead focuses on a past ideal. Pramoedya frequently uses the character of Minke to play around with Indonesias history. Minke defines progress in the Indies through inscribing Europes past onto the colonial present, for Pramoedya equates the Indonesian struggle to events that witnessed the dawn of modern Europe. Situating Indonesia against this more idyllic representation of Europe reflects the notion that Indonesia can be what Europe should have been. By evoking Europes past as a desirable future, whilst precluding the decadence of the European present, Pramoedya can redefine these historic principles through an Indonesian lens. Reed and Adams (2011) idea of ideological totalization helps explain how this can be so. The modern purportedly represents a ritual of societal self-constitution (p.254). Dictated by an elite vanguard, the Indies transition to modernity was symbolised by practices of cultural introspection, and the tendency to visualise the Indonesian nation in societys perfect image; an archetypal socialist utopia. The PKI represented such a vanguard; a vanguard which, Cribb (1985) observes, failed on three separate occasions between 1920 and 1965. Minkes idealisation of Europe is therefore crucial to Pramoedyas own imaginary, reflecting how he thinks Indonesia should have been formed. Such a fantasy thus provides the backdrop for the recreation of the Indonesian nation. 5.1.2 The monster of European colonialism In dislocating Europes present and focusing on an ideal past, Pramoedya has contained the negatives of Europe (capitalism as manifested in colonialism) solely in the colonial space. Essentially, the European model has replicated itself through a deficient colonialist copy. Colonial culture has tried to emulate the European model, but however good the simulation, it does not amount to the real thing (Robins 1996, p.67). Such differences Pramoedya draws out through different modes of personification. As a product of

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European and non-Western culture, the Indies is likened to a problem child gone AWOL, a living, breathing thing whose power is increasingly beyond the control of Europe: a monster that became hungrier and hungrier the more it gobbled up (1984, p.274). The parents of the problem child are not necessarily bad, hence the source of the problem, Europe, can still be conceived as an idyll. It is merely a unique combination of social, cultural and political conditions that have resulted in the monster of colonialism in its present manifestation. At the end of This Earth of Mankind, when Minke questions the deportation of Annelies, he laments:
Europe, you, my teacher, is this the manner of your deeds? So that even my wife, who knows so little about you, lost all belief in her little world a world incapable of providing security even for her. (1982, p.358-359)

In this example Europe is incarnate as a being, something with life, and with which Minke has a conversation. Minke addresses Europe as his teacher, with Europe personified as someone that Minke looks up to. In questioning is this the manner of your deeds Minke is essentially asking the parents why the problem child has turned out as it has. The colonial present is staged as a crisis for the Indies; a struggle that must be overcome. In House of Glass Pangemanann acknowledges that colonialism was racing against the forward march of history (p.18), and the struggles of Pangemanann to keep colonialism alive are witnessed in his realisation of the Natives power; that there is no human force that can hold them back (p.140). Colonialisms struggles with the Natives and with itself reflect a very dynamic space, in deliberate contrast to the timeless European idyll. Understanding Pramoedyas occidentalist fantasy requires sealing this rupture, and reconciling these two worlds. Minke justifies his thoughts and actions through references to both an evil colonial present and an idyllic future which the Indies can realise through overthrowing colonial power. Pramoedya therefore essentialises Europe for its ideal qualities, and defines it in opposition to the political turbulence ongoing in Indonesia. In the Buru Quartet the constant flow of history is in the colonies, and Indonesia is therefore staged as a battleground for modernity; the stage for which modernity is to transform and history to progress. The contrast between Europe and European colonialism is expertly drawn out through Pangemananns hijacking of the narrative voice a technique which, Crossette (1992)
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notes, reflects the complex psychology of colonial life (online). As Pramoedya affirms (1996), it is fundamental to the quartets concept, and to the self-reflexivity of his narrative, allowing him to interrogate the dark underside of modernity (Patke 2005). On multiple occasions the tortured narrative voice of Pangemanann confesses to the meaningless of his existence, in one instance contemplating suicide, believing that Perhaps death was the most appealing of comrades (p.282). Such self-hatred is a product of his responsibility for the ruin of Minke, a person whom I respected and honoured so much (p.8). His recognition that European colonialism is the reason he had grown weak and unprincipled (p.41) connotes the corrupting force of the colonial devil, whose slaves had a right to some little corner of heaven (p.21). Pangemanann can only be restored to his old ways by dreaming of beautiful France, an idyll to which he dreams to return, only to be impeded by work commitments. An inquisitive Pangemanann never ceases to wrestle with his own conscience, frolicking back and forth between self-justification and selfcriticism. Through his complex musings and deterioration in health, Pramoedya can pronounce the decay of the colonial system and its depraving effect on the Indies Native. At the end of House of Glass, Nyai Ontosoroh returns to the Indies to see Minke in 1918, only to find, at the hands of Pangemanann, that he has passed away, oblivious to his role in changing Indonesias political landscape. Cheah expertly argues that, as someone educated at the Sorbonne, a subject inspired by European values, Pangemanann is being judged by Ontosoroh, the representative of France, for betraying his vocation as a person of education (2003, p.327). Ontosoroh embodies a nostalgic cast back to his childhood, when European life was so pure. But she more significantly personifies the idyll of Europe; an antithesis to Pangemanann as the corrupt face of European colonialism.

5.2

Between ideal and reality: understanding the ego and its other

Because Pramoedyas novels hold a living contact with unfinished, still-evolving contemporary reality (Bakhtin 1981, p.7), the distance separating the narrative and authorial audiences represents an important way Indonesian modernity is framed. Connecting the quartets constructions of the West to Indonesias neocolonial present requires an understanding of how Pramoedya views Indonesia under independent rule. Even after the Reformasi in 1998, Pramoedya sees Indonesia as a nation threatened by neocolonialism. By neocolonial he means an attitude of ruling which, like colonialism: commands subservience, and is distanced, from the people; manipulates and controls the
38

beliefs of the people; is marred by corruption and nepotism. Such were the conditions of the New Order, under which Pramoedya met his tragic fate, and the ideal of democracy never materialized (Pramoedya 1998b, online). Minkes and Pangemananns (ultimately unsuccessful) search for themselves reflects Lukcs idea that the novel embodies an unbridgeable chasm between the reality that is and the ideal that should be (1963, p.78), and Pramoedyas perpetual quest for life meaning. In the news magazine Suara Independen (Voice of Independence), Pramoedya speaks of want[ing] to know my own self as [part of] a nation (1995, online). Discussing the selfunderstanding of the human subject, Eagleton (2006) postulates that the split between the ego and the other is a vital part of literary philosophy; our ego stands for the false conception of the self and its objects of desire, whilst its other represents a site of truth that will forever elude our grasp. The self-reflexive qualities of the quartet become apparent, as Pramoedya attempts to position his own self through means of the quartets narrative. Earlier in his life, before his incarceration, Pramoedya once won a years fellowship in Holland, and he describes Amsterdam as a pleasurable experience (Rush 1995). Juxtaposed with the grim reality of life imprisonment, it is not unlikely that such positive images of Europe were etched into his mind, offering him a refuge from his own plight. Pramoedyas conflictual thought patterns manifest in the form of Minkes pathological engagement with Europe and expressions of self-doubt throughout the quartet. Overcoming his obsession with Europe, and what Suhartos Indonesia can never be like, necessitates a retreat into a narcissistic relation with ones own object of loss (Blanc 1997, online). Just as the Buru Quartet portrays a European idyll and Minkes desires for modern-ness are encapsulated in this othered space, Pramoedyas desires for such ideals, which hold the key to true lifes meaning, are likewise encapsulated in past (albeit fleeting) memories of Europe; an eternality from which he is divorced. The negatives of modernity are meanwhile contained in his own militant neocolonial space the battleground on which his struggle for modernity takes place. Reflecting on his experience a decade after completing the tetralogy, and seven years following his release from house arrest, having been allowed to visit the United States Pramoedya admits he is touched by
...how the different peoples and different races live together, peacefully. I saw this, and it made me cry, because I want this for Indonesia.

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(1999, online)

Such words only reinforce the positive images of Europe, and of the West, that Pramoedya was trying to depict in the quartet.

5.3

Concluding remarks

In the quartet Minke views Western culture as a father figure from which he can source the strength of character to battle colonialism. As discussed, Pramoedya disavows popular Asian values debates which criticise the supposed decadence of the West. For instance, when asked if he fear[ed] the spread of American popular culture, Pramoedya replied: No, everything which is beneficial to national or individual growth is good (1996, online). Such is the tyranny of the Suharto regime that Pramoedya needs to believe in a good place, somewhere. Minkes viewing of Europe through rose-tinted glasses is a reflection of such sentiment. Pramoedya severs the antimodern tendencies of colonialism, and of neocolonialism, from the modernisation of the West, a space of true humanity at least, in comparison to his own space. The quartet therefore alerts the reader to the political struggles still ongoing in neocolonial Indonesia. If we reconsider Knights (2007) remark that Asian Marxists are successful more in the revolutionary phrase than in the construction of a socialist modernity, then Pramoedyas novels offer a crucial means of exploring why, in Indonesia, this is so. Pramoedya employs Marxism as much to combat his own rulers as to criticise colonialism. Set against the fragmentation and decay of Indonesian culture, the idea of a socialist modernity seemed a long way off. Privileging the nation over the broader focus of socialism was not grounded so much in an unwillingness to cede nationalist principles, as the necessity of delivering Indonesia from its own social, cultural and political evils. Pramoedya utilises Marxism as a means of effecting Indonesias disenchantment with Javanese mysticism and offering a more rational mode of thought. Suhartos New Order epitomised Javanese pre-modernism, insisting on this notion of an idealized traditional Javanese kingdom (Cribb and Brown 1995, p.137). As Suhartos captive, and a subject alienated from his own present, Pramoedya knew of the unattainability of a more rational life system, and such ideas are thus romanticised through the quartets narrative, conveyed through a sense of longing for a space like Europe. He overcomes his cultural alienation by retreating to an idealised European past; a life which he can only dream about. Idyllic

40

Europe is reproduced because it empowers Pramoedya, allowing him to assert his subjectivity in the encounter with his oppressors. Europe is not presented in a negative light but employed as a positive image to guide Pramoedya through the neocolonial present.

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Conclusion

This paper aimed to explore constructions of the West in the Buru Quartet, with critical focus on the ambivalence of such representations, and the extent to which they reflect a sense of cultural dislocation in Marxist Indonesia. In this concluding chapter, I will reexamine the aims and objectives of my research, discussing the significance of my findings and what they reveal about conducting research of this variety, whilst reflecting on the studys limitations and offering pointers for future research. Discussion is split into three dominant, interconnected themes which emerged from the research: the assumptions inherent in the interpretation of non-Western Marxist literature; the promises and tensions of studying non-Western modernity; the value of fiction as an empirical model.

6.1

For a reorientation of non-Western Marxism

This paper sought to undertake a critical analysis of Pramoedyas texts, acknowledging that his ideas are part and parcel of a broader political discourse. This has certainly been demonstrated, but only to a certain extent and not in the way predicted. Whilst Pramoedya is undeniably part of a left-wing writing tradition, he writes from a very unique perspective, reflecting his cultural isolation under the tyrannical Suharto regime. At a superficial level, the Buru Quartet stems from a rich anticolonial writing culture, reflecting the struggles between the Natives and the Dutch at the turn of the twentieth century. But upon closer examination, Pramoedya produces a remarkable criticism of his own countrys atavistic Javanese culture, and Indonesias strand of Marxist thought, Marhaenism. The complexity of non-Western Marxism becomes apparent, for whilst the PKI operated around a Marhaenist worldview, despite his connections to Lekra Pramoedya disavowed this indigenous perspective, considering it a threat to the nations longer term interests. This paper therefore underlines the perils of making assumptions as to how Marxism is applied in indigenous cultures. Although Marhaenism represented the dominant strand of Marxist thought in Indonesia, it is a mistake to believe that Pramoedya, albeit one of the countrys most vocal political figures, was a part of this trend. The quartet is thus not so much about cultural dislocation in Marxist Indonesia as Pramoedyas dislocation from Marxist Indonesia. Disillusioned with the nature in which Marxism had been interpreted through the Javanese cosmos, Pramoedya essentially breaks the trend by detaching himself

42

from the PKIs Javanism-oriented understanding of political culture, offering a qualitatively different emphasis (Lane 2006b, online). The inclination of his peers towards Marhaenism and associated Javanese social structures, and the subservient culture of tepo seliro, are the aspects of culture he holds responsible for thwarting his countrys intellectual progress a painful experience as he witnessed his own country, and his life, perish under oppressive rule. The quartet is perhaps more likeable to a Leninist than a Marhaenist point of view, in that Pramoedya views the ignorance of his countrys people as a barrier to national change. There has certainly been a distinct lack of internal focus on the ways and reasons why non-Western Marxism is expressed, with scholars sticking to generalised Leninist assumptions of anticolonial sentiment. But Pramoedya employs a Marxist frame of thought as much to combat his own rulers as to criticise colonialism. Understanding this internal context sets the utopian idea of a socialist modernity against the fragmentation and decay of Indonesian culture, and with this in mind it is imperative that non-Western cultures are not crudely framed as unsuccessful in their attempts to apply Marxist thought. The quartet is certainly not a conventional example of Asian Marxist literature. Instead it sets a fascinating frame of reference in which to position future studies of non-Western Marxism, for Pramoedya sees the value of Marxism not in the more obvious Leninist anticolonial sense, but in the dialectical re-examination of history, providing the very foundation for a reformulation of a rational Indonesian culture.

6.2

Contested modernities: promise and tension

This paper sought to question the picture of modernity which is being promoted in the Buru Quartet, and how this enables Pramoedya to negotiate his relationship with the West. Clearly the idea of the West, and more specifically Europe, is fundamental to Pramoedyas train of thought. This is perhaps one of the most interesting, and important, points for discussion, for constructions of the West are used as a mechanism of self-criticism, with Europe the object of fantasy and Indonesia cast as the centre of a recurring neocolonial nightmare. The quartet is thus symbolic of the complexity of the encounter between Asian and Western thought, evidencing Pramoedyas resourceful construction of the West as a means of overcoming his own strained existence. Albeit necessary to explore how modernity is contested, what is less obvious is that such conflict occurs as much within indigenous cultures as between them and an image of the West. Such an individualised cultural criticism cannot be connected to broader assumptions of Indonesian politics, for
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Pramoedyas experience, albeit rich in the nations political heritage, is set against the dominant cultural model. However, by connecting the quartet to (lack of) social change in Indonesia (albeit from an individual perspective), this study has revealed something more promising. With the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, and especially as more and more Indonesians discover Pramoedyas legacy, there may be reason to explore a nuanced type of engagement with the West in Indonesia which differs from the more popular, albeit exhausted, examples of Asian values perspectives emanating from countries like Singapore and Malaysia. Hence what emerges from this study is a novel set of questions which centre on Indonesias reconstruction of its national image. As is to be expected from such a study, the Buru Quartet exposes a complex field of subjectivity (Ahiska 2003, p.365) which helps to analyse the internal tensions inherent in non-Western articulations of modernity. What has become clear is that, in acknowledging that modernity is contested, one should not automatically assume that it is the Wests claims to modernity that are being contested. Indeed, at first glance the quartet seems to embody Pramoedyas reaction to Indonesias historic colonial condition. But representations of colonialism in the quartet are as much a message to present day Indonesia as they are a strike on the Wests historic conscience. In this unique case it is Pramoedya who is contesting the way Indonesia became modern, and how it differed too much from the age of the enlightenment. Pramoedya is therefore important as an Asian figure that subverts and, to an extent, inverts the popular Asian elitist narrative of modernity, exhorting Indonesians to look to the West where its future lies; an unerring reflection of how the West can be a positive shaping force. I wrote in chapter one that the notion that other cultures would naturally meander towards an example set by the West is problematic. Certainly in light of the cosmopolitan turn, writing about the prevalence of the West has become harder to justify. But context is key in Pramoedyas case, and the West should be viewed relative to Indonesia at the time the quartet was conceived. The allure of Western freedoms becomes easier to contemplate in the thought of a subject who suffered for decades at the hands of his own country.

6.3

The value of the novel

It is important to assess the benefits and drawbacks of the novel as a means of exploring non-Western constructions of the West. As highlighted in the papers introduction, the narrative space of a novel has been neglected as a category for geographical analysis
44

despite the reality that text and space, fiction and location...[are] inseparable and coproductive (Hones 2011, p.686). Both narrative theory and human geography are mutually compatible and beneficial, through their combined interest in interpreting the empirical world. By allow[ing] insights into places and manifestations of place identity, the Buru Quartet has certainly exposed the ambivalent character of political culture in Indonesia, grounded in the authors position as shaper of social worlds real and imagined (Stainer 2006, p.103-4). The complexity of literary geography arises from the murkiness of the theoretical and methodological boundaries between geographical and literary analysis. Not that this should be taken negatively; for Hones (2008), the potential of literary geography lies in promoting cross-disciplinary alliances. From my study the most obvious alliance which comes to mind is that between studies of occidentalism and the novel form. Narrative concepts can be used to explore geographical themes and position how modernity is framed the doubled textual geography of the quartets narrative and authorial audiences being a case in point. The concept of narrative universe is particularly valuable for infiltrating the mind of the writer, allowing for aesthetic readings of the quartets fantasised imagery which are crucial to unpacking the romanticised representations of the West, as scholars of occidentalism strive to do. No better can one examine an imagined gaze than in the novel, where the whole world is constructed through the authors imagination. Not only do literary works convey the personality of the writer, but, as demonstrated in chapter five, literary philosophy is vital to positioning the authors sense of self. Thus encased in the novel is an untapped resource of intense subjectivity: through his writing, and the multitude of different characters and political perspectives, we experience Pramoedyas attempts to find his sense of place. The most obvious point to note about research of this variety is that narrative space is constructed through the readers imagination on the basis of cultural knowledge (Ryan 2010, online). I maximised the potential for what one could term a useful interpretation of the novels, by combining my analysis with relevant excerpts from Pramoedyas speeches and interviews. However because literary geography embodies an interpretative strategy, and keeping in mind the Bakhtinian idea that both author and reader inhabit their own chronotope (chronotope implying an interpretation of space and time in literature) (Vice 1997, p.208), arguably the fantasy is as much mine as his. In short, the text-reader interaction is central to how the geography of Indonesia is perceived. Commenting on the individuality of pieces of
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research, Tate concedes that methodological subjectivity is unashamedly flaunted as an unproblematic research strategy and so risks discrediting and invalidating occidentalism as a discourse (2005, p.347). I certainly hope not to have flaunted my strategy; the case becomes somewhat obscured when analysing the novel. Moreover, filling the historical abyss engendered by the surreptitious New Order requires turning to buku-buku kiri, which offers one of few means to excavate this buried past. We should not underestimate the value of imagining oneself in anothers place. In the words of Einstein (1929, p.117), Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles
the world.

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(New York, Cornell University) Pramoedya, A.T. (1982) This Earth of Mankind, Trans. Max Lane (New York, William Morrow and Company) Pramoedya, A.T. (1984) Child Of All Nations, Trans. Max Lane (New York, William Morrow and Company) Pramoedya, A.T. (1985) Footsteps, Trans. Max Lane (New York, William Morrow and Company) Pramoedya, A.T. (1988) House of Glass, Trans. Max Lane (New York, William Morrow and Company) Pramoedya, A.T. (1992), My Apologies, in the Name of Experience, Translated by Alex G Bardsley, Indonesia, 61, pp.1-14 Pramoedya, A.T. (1995), I Have Closed the Book on Power, Translated by Alex G Bardsley, Suara Indepenen, available at https://sites.google.com/site/pramoedyasite/home/works-in-translation/i-have-closed-thebook-on-power (Accessed 4 July 2012) Pramoedya, A.T. (1996), Interview by Sebastian Tong and Fong Foong Mei, Conducted and edited by Sebastian Tong and Fong Foong Mei, available at https://sites.google.com/site/pramoedyasite/home/works-in-translation/interview-bysebastian-tong-and-fong-foong-mei (Accessed 4 July 2012) Pramoedya, A.T. (1998a), Democracy Is An Individual Choice, Conducted and edited by Romain Bertrand, available at http://www.cerisciencespo.com/archive/november/intpat.pdf (Accessed 4 July 2012) Pramoedya, A.T. (1998b), A Plea for Indonesia's 'Silent Millions', Conducted and edited by Idanna Pucci, The Washington Post, available at http://bebeth009.blogspot.co.uk/2005/02/pramoedyas-80th-birthday.html (Accessed 30 July 2012) Pramoedya, A.T. (1999), Escaping Indonesia's Iron Fist in Fiction, But Not in Life, Conducted and edited by Steve Proffitt, Los Angeles Times, available at http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jun/06/opinion/op-44632 Pramoedya, A.T. (2000), Pramoedya Talks about Indonesia and Japan, available at http://www.asianmonth.com/prize/english/lecture/pdf/11_02.pdf (Accessed 5 July 2012) Putra, I.N.D. (2003) Reflections on Literature and Politics in Bali: the development of Lekra, 1950-1966 in Reuter, T.A. (Ed.) Inequality, Crisis and Social Change in Indonesia (London, RoutledgeCurzon)
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Reed, I.A and Adams, J. (2011) Culture in the transitions to modernity: seven pillars of a new research agenda, Theory and Society, 40, 3, pp.247-272 Robins, K. (1996) Interrupting Identities: Turkey/Europe in Hall, S and du Gay, P. (Eds.) Questions of Cultural Identity (London, Sage) Rush, J. (1995) BIOGRAPHY of Pramoedya Ananta Toer, available at http://www.rmaf.org.ph/Awardees/Biography/BiographyPramoedyaAna.htm (Accessed 7 July 2012) Ryan, M.L. (2010) Space in The Living Handbook of Narratology, available at http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php/Space (Accessed 18 November 2011) Schmidt, V.H. (2006) Multiple Modernities or Varieties of Modernity?, Current Sociology, 54, 1, pp.77-97 Silva, F.C and Vieira, M.B. (2009) Plural Modernity: Changing Modern Institutional FormsDisciplines and Nation-States, Social Analysis, 53, 2, pp.60-79 Smith, J.C.A. (2011) Modernity and civilization in Johann Arnason's social theory of Japan, European Journal of Social Theory, 14, 1, pp.41-54 Stainer, J. (2006) Localism, signification, imagination: de-stabilizing sectarian identities in two fictionalized accounts of troubles Belfast, Journal of Social and Cultural Geography, 7, 1, pp.103-126 Sukarno (1926) Nationalism, Islam and Marxism (Cornell, Cornell University) Sun, G. (2000) How does Asia mean? (part 1), Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 1, pp.13-47 Tate, S. (2005) Whose occident? Methodological parochialism in research on the West, Scottish Geographical Journal, 121, 4, pp.339-354 Teeuw, A. (1972) The Impact of Balai Pustaka on Modern Indonesian Literature, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 35, 1, pp.111-127 Toal, G. (1999) Understanding Critical Geopolitics: Geopolitics and Risk Society, Journal of Strategic Studies, 22, 2/3, pp.107-124 Tong, S. (1999) Unexpected convergences: Bakhtins novelistic discourse and Pramoedya Ananta Toers Epic novels, World Literature Today, 73, 3, online, available at http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk/searchFulltext.do?id=R01628493&divLevel=0&area=abell&fo rward=critref_ft Tsao, T. (2012) The Evolution of Java-Men and Revolutionaries: A Fresh Look at Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Buru Quartet, SEAR South East Asia Research, 20, 1, pp.5381 Vice, S. (1997) Introducing Bakhtin (Manchester, Manchester University Press)
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Wagner, P. (2010) Successive Modernities and the Idea of Progress: A First Attempt, Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory, 11, 2, pp.9-24 Wallerstein, I. (1991) Geopolitics and Geoculture: Essays on the Changing World System (New York, Cambridge University Press) Wieringa, S. (2002) Sexual Politics in Indonesia (Hampshire, Palgrave Macmillan) Witoelar, W. (2002) No Regrets: reflections of a Presidential Spokesman (Jakarta, Equinox Publishing) Young, R. (1995) Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race (London, Routledge) Zurbuchen, M.S. (2002), History, Memory, and the 1965 Incident in Indonesia, Asian Survey, 42, 4, pp.564-581

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Appendices Appendix 1: The five-step research process

Step 1: Isolating and colour-coding the themes for analysis Key:
Constructions of the West Javanese/Javanism Political ideology Representations of the colonial encounter Non-Western modernity P79 Injustice/inequality P80 Siding with colonialism Subservience P92 Friendliness of Tuan Confused identity P114 Japan vs. Europe Japanese progress Dutch control as natural Colonial paternalism Ambivalence to modernity P121 Javanese customs European vs. Native treatment P122 Javanese hierarchy Succumbing to tradition Java vs. future of humanity Primitive mentality Javanism vs. colonial devil P127 Love for mother (Javanism) P128 Freedom vs. Shackles of Javanism To be modern is free P130 Confused identity P133 Javanism P134 Alienation P137 Respected P138 Javanism Belittled P148 Example to people P149 Fairytale vs. twisted colonial experiment Dutch vs. Natives European progressiveness Not all Europeans evil P192 Minkes development = Indonesias Javanese vs. civilisation P224 European vs. Colonialism P250 Using Europe for own interest Native image (protective device) Anti-Europeanness Metaphor for Indonesian progress P279 European court P287 Banned from using Dutch, refuses to use Javanese P289 Disgust at European court P297 Dutch > Javanese Science > Javanism P301 Elevation above European peers P327 Inequality Native vs. European power P358 Hypocrisy of Europe

This Earth of Mankind (n.v: Minke) P16 European progressiveness Values colonial education P17 Product of Europe European superiority Javanese with European training European progressiveness Deprived older generation Europe vs. Wayang Europe vs. Dutch Indies Valuing colonialism P18 Confusion with modernity P19 European progressiveness Inferiority complex Product of Europe European modernity P20 Superiority complex P23 European education Javanese culture uncivilised Javanese P24 Respect as Native (because European business/knowledge/customs) P29 Ontosoroh = Javanese Racism P49 Rudeness of Europeans European identity vs. native identity P56 Equality P60 Barrenness of Europe Meaning of life Inequality Scarring of colonial war Barbarity P61 Admirable Acehnese vs. European technology P67 Cultural relations P68 European literature

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Child of All Nations (n.v: Minke) P15 Native principles P17 Racial prejudice P20 Social status P27 Social status/Corruption P36 Mistreatment P42 Mistreatment P47 Japan as example P48 Japan as equal P49 Self-sufficiency P51 Racism P54 Japan as example P56 Racism (anti-Chinese) P58 Siding with colonialism P61 English superiority P68 Corruption (older generation) Japan as equal Europe vs. Asia P75 Deifying Europe P76 European superiority P77 Oppression of mankind P78 West as virus P82 Colonial devil P83 Inequality Anticolonial = advanced Triumph of the East Japan as example Science and learning A conquered people P88 Stunted growth P89 Capitals interests P90 Khouw Ah Soe = Chinese awakening P102 Western superiority P103 European progressiveness Colonialism as inevitability P113 Knowing ones society P118 Inequality P120 Mistreatment P124 European progressiveness Native as sub-standard Degradation of Native European as supernatural Inequality Revenge of the Native P189 Writing gives life substance P203 Corruption P205 Alienation P208 Evil money P225 Exploitation P231 European attire P237 Inequality P239 Atavism of peasants P251 Inequality ix

P255 Corruption P259 Age of capital Deifying capital P264 Philippines P265 Colonial paternalism P272 Benefit of capital Power of Nationalism P274 Honour of Europe cf. European power as a monster key P275 Philippines P284 Confusion with modernity P317 Japan as example P318 Colonial paternalism Footsteps (n.v: Minke)

Reject modernity P16 Freedom/Independence White exploitation P17 Modernity = human rights P21 Undermine authority Oppression P27 Confidence against Europe P33 Triumph of capital P35 Liberalism P37 Mistreatment P42 Fraudulent P48 Corruption P49 Sugar Inequality (cf. Rousseau) P64 Orphan P65 Javanese morals P67 Hypocrisy P69 Feminism Beauty of Java China P73 Ang San Mei = Chinese awakening P77 Western decadence P79 Young generation P81 Chinese values P98 Javanese culture P106 False consciousness P118 Young vs. old generation P123 Success of Japan P125 Japan as modern P131 Confusion with ideas P138 West as virus P159 Tyranny P171 Organisation P173 Becoming modern P177 False consciousness P191 Organisation Democracy

P195 Priyayi = problematic p197 Propaganda p198 Mama = pro-Indonesia p200 Persecution p201 Europe vs. Gamelan p203 Chinese values p204 Equality p216 Christianity vs. militarism p217 Barbarism p218 Mama = anticolonial p219 Javanese conscience p221 Java vs. modernity Repression P226 Colonial empathy P229 Natural success P231 Duty to the people P232 European marriage = harmonious P234 Priyayi = problematic Siding with colonialism P237 Violence P240 Tranquillity vs. Barbarity P242 National pioneer Colonial Europe vs. Free Europe Voice of the people Selflessness P245 Barbarism P246 Court P249 Colonial bandit P253 Javanese identity P257 Priyayi mentality P260 Religion and modernisation P261 Organisation P265 Social hierarchy P269 Priyayi = problematic P271 Racial organisation P274 Use of Dutch language Social hierarchy Rigidity P277 Superiority Javanese culture/language P281 Europe vs. the Indies Java deserves credit Civilising the Native P288 Boycott Development of humankind P292 Bupati = meaningless P294 Voice of the people P299 Grace, confidence, selfrespect Priyayi mentality P305 Indisch people P306 European tradition vs. the Indies x

Sugar P324 Lack of discrimination P331 Young generation P333 Hostility P339 Trading organisation P340 Islamic traders Union (SDI) p342 Aggression Immorality p343 Indies Nationalism P347 Corruption P348 Ancestry/culture Reshaping modernity P349 Javanese customs Inequality P351 Success of SDI P353 SDI and Marxism P354 Boycott Hidden desires Violation of rights P366 Bourgeois organisation P368 Aggression P369 Racial hatred Corruption The comrade P372 Equality P373 Roman empire P374 Traditional values P375 Isolation P376 Outmoded ideas P377 Confusion with modernity Pride vs. reality Alienation P379 Confusion with modernity P385 Mistreatment P386 Victimisation P388 Desire for education P389 Ethical policy P390 Power of China Chinese Superiority Rebellion in China Older generation P394 Defying customs P395 Negativity of customs Feminism (Kartini) Rights of the modern individual P404 Sugar/exploitation P405 Boycott P416 Brutality and aggression P418 Wayang Rise of bourgeoisie P424 Mistreatment P431 Hypocrisy P449 Advantages over Europe P450 Idealism

P455 European customs P456 Anti-liberal

House of Glass (n.v: Pangemanann) P2 Sun Yat-Sen P3 Look to Europe Nationalism = modern P4 Knowledge of Dutch Understanding Europe P5 Europe vs. colonialism Democratic spirit Challenging authority Admiration for Minke P7 Confusion with Europe Uniting the Natives P8 Liberalism Privileging government interests P9 European education Empathy Sugar/aggression P14 Admiration for Minke P18 Flow of history P19 Commodifying the Native Thuggery Dishonesty Lust Intimidation Resolve/resistance Machiavellian P21 Piece of heaven Self-justification Hypocrisy P23 Different customs Deceit/treachery P26 Machine of civilisation P27 Pangemanann = high status P28 Thought of the Native How they organise cf. Europe P29 Criminal P30 Weak-willed P35 Inhumanity of colonial motive vs. European influence Pangemanann is unworthy vs. Minke Living in glass house P41 Innocence of Pangemanann vs. Corruption of colonial system Exploitation Pangemanann = unprincipled Self-conscious identity Inferiority as Native P48 Barrenness of Indies life P49 Emulating the Philippines Interconnection Asian colonies

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P50 Dutch genius Indoctrination of natives Destroying idealism Pangemanann as Native guinea pig European knowledge reveals that colonialism evil - paradox P55 paradox of colonialism important P62 Awakening of West vs. awakening of east P67 Javacentrism P68 Javanese > European peoples P69 Java defeated by Europe Writing poems before Europeans P71 Europeans defeated Java because they had principles P73 Oppression Minke victim of colonialism P78 universe of Wayang vs. modern ideas Javanese = defeated philosophy Unconsciousness of the Javanese people P83 Pangemanann face of Netherlands Indies Europe and China Successful human being vs. successful criminal Tortured conscience Minke destroyed by colonial law European vs. Asian values Barbarism Pangemanann succumbing to corruption Innocence of Minke National pioneer P98 Chinese awakening vs. Native awakening Links to Marxism Power of European knowledge P104 Colonial power P112 English newspaper: hell in the Indies P115 Fall of the Javanese Indies is not awakening as the French revolution suggests ambivalence French revolution - waisya in Java? P119 Japanese and Chinese awakenings A European organisation challenging Europe

Talk about this 'false' form of Europe, as in Dutch colonial power P120 Kuomintang - Chinese National People's Party The political party Corruption and working for colonialism Threat of young generation Numbed to violence P124 Confusion with democracy P125 Javanese democracy vs. European democracy Thought and responsibility vs. tradition in Java Notion of big brother (Orwell) Confusion with democracy P130 Mistreatment Domination of the Native P136 Emergence of multiple parties Europe as a guide P140 Native and the modern world P142 Selfish interests P144 Seed of nationalism Pangemanann as a conquered Native P151 Use of European ideas natural P153 Colonialism root of all problems P157 Abuse of power P166 Loss of national integrity P170 running amok vs. Western rationality P174 Value of European literature P181 Strength of nationalism P183 from Marko to Marco European pedigree Javanese ancestry P188 Fighting colonialism Nationalists of the European mould P189 Better life in France P190 Marco as a European Native Hybridity - Bhabha Western rationalism coupled with Eastern viciousness P201 Racial hatred P208 European science and learning xii

P215 Superiority of European philosophy P220 Nationalists = political consciousness P223 Europeanisation of thought P224 politicians vs. criminals P225 Idealising the European woman P227 Held back by own people P229 English influence and yellow culture P230 Confronting the colonialists P231 Indies nationalism vs. ethnic nationalism (unity vs. divergence) P232 Positivity of European education P250 the great Thomas Edison (light bulb) P253 Progressive values P260 Confusion of young generation P263 confusion - European vs. traditional thinking P264 The homeland Java as unprincipled P270 Bribery of Pangemanann P278 Value of Native women P282 Meaninglessness of Pangemanann's existence P284 French Revolution without the philosophy P285 Turning back on government P286 Nationalism as product of Europe P287 Speech and pen, not blood and sword Javanese rigidity P288 Natives borrowing from Europe Confusion by European education P289 Confusion of nationalist leaders P291 Rioting and unrest P300 The meaning of freedom P301 Jean Marais and the irony of civilisation P305 Minke inherently Javanese P306 Minkes limited knowledge of Europe

European rationality P307 European superiority Javas lack of contribution The grass against the trees Minke as representative of Java P316 Minke as a selfrespecting European P321 Alienation from his people Minke a teacher of Europe P336 Promise of selfgovernment P345 Pangemanann devoid of self-respect P349 Pangemanann: European environment vs. colonialism P357 Pangemanann's European education for nothing

Step 2: Dominant phrases, buzzwords and discourses across the quartet

Constructions of the West West as superior/heaven, Juxtaposition of Europe with European colonialism, Juxtaposition of Europe with Javanism, Europe as teacher, Minke, Within Asian values discourse, Ambivalence to European thought, Orientalism discourse Javanese/Javanism Culture as traditional/timeless, social hierarchy, Wayang culture, Mentality, Isolation, Juxtaposition with Europe, Defeat, Minke, Ignorance, Pride Political ideology Demand for equal rights/status, (False) consciousness, Ambivalence to method, Anticolonial, Value of science and learning, Influence of capital, Modernity, Bourgeoisie, Alienation, Organisation, The people, the nation/nationalism, Minke, Feminism, Boycott, Liberalism Representations of colonial encounter Racism, Corruption, Inequality, Colonial paternalism, Juxtaposition with tranquil Europe, Pangemanann, Unprincipled, Sugar, Hypocrisy, Evil, Aggression, Anticolonialism, Criminal, Undeveloped, Empathy, Indoctrination, Orientalism discourse Non-Western modernity Success/examples of Japan/China, awakening, young generation, old generation, ambivalence to modernity, Asian values discourse, (lack of) knowledge, nationalism, Europe, Philippines, Orientalism discourse, Selfconscious

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Step 3a: Connecting the quartets themes

Minke constructions of the West West as superior/heaven Minke Political ideology Javanism West as superior/heaven Negatives of colonialism Pangemanann Negatives of colonialism Ambivalence to method nationalism

Step 3b: Combining themes and narrative concepts

Authorial audience What is the link? Narrative audience Narrative voice why the shift from Minke to Pangemanann? Intradiagetic embedding connection to Javanism? Narrative universe how can this be applied?

Minke constructions of the West West as superior/heaven idealising the West (narrative universe) Minke Political ideology Javanism (intradiagetic narration) viewing Marxism through Javanese lens hence the ambivalence to modernity West as superior/heaven Negatives of colonialism (narrative universe) such idealisation in comparison to his own colonial plight Pangemanann Negatives of colonialism (shift in narrative voice) Pangemanann represents the negative influence of colonialism Ambivalence to method nationalism privileging the nation over socialism

Authorial audience ?

narrative audience

Step 4: Key ideas from speech and interview transcripts

Indonesia testing for young generation Failure of older generation Colonial paternalism Positive impression of America Notion of becoming fully human Courage against the oppressors Lack of conceptualisation behind Indonesia Apologises for Javanism Against Wayang Buru Quartet as re-examination of history Pramoedya writes against status quo (cf. Lekra) Value of Aufklaerung (enlightenment) xiv

Writing for the people Negatives of kampung culture Cultural dislocation Shift of narrative voice fundamental to quartet Link between Javanism and Suharto regime

Step 5: Bringing the themes together (connecting authorial and narrative audiences)
Minke constructions of the West West as superior/heaven idealising the West (narrative universe) (reflects Pramoedyas positive impression of America) Minke Political ideology Javanism (intradiagetic narration) viewing Marxism through Javanese lens hence the ambivalence to modernity (Exploring historical role of Javanism: Pramoedya against Javanism because Suharto regime is Javanese) West as superior/heaven Negatives of colonialism (narrative universe) such idealisation in comparison to his own colonial plight (value of Aufklaerung to construct Indonesia in Western image) Pangemanann Negatives of colonialism (shift in narrative voice) Pangemanann represents the negative influence of colonialism Ambivalence to method nationalism privileging the nation over socialism (because Indonesia has own problems and broader context of Marxism irrelevant)

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Appendix 2: Samples from speech and interview transcripts

My Apologies, in the Name of Experience (adapted from Indonesia 61) Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Translated with an Afterword by Alex G Bardsley) I was twenty at the time. But I myself am of Javanese ethnic origin, and so I was educated from birth to become a Javanese, guided by the social-ethnic mechanism toward Javanese ideals, culture and civilization. In their own times, it is true, other peoples have experienced such a "kampung" civilization and culture too. Those who have managed to slip their shackles are the nations that rule the world. In 3 1/2 centuries of colonization, my ethnic group's power never once prevailed against European power, not in any field, but especially not militarily. The poets and writers of Java, being some of those who think and imagine within the framework of "kampung" civilization and culture, flaunt the superiority of Java: that in facing the Dutch, and Europe, Java never lost. The masturbatory stories that are staged, and written, and even the stories spread by word of mouth, constitute one of the reasons I always ask: why does my ethnic group not want to face reality? The little knowledge I picked up in primary school and the little reading I have done in Western literature, at first unconsciously, but ever more forcefully, made me free myself from the "kampung" civilization and culture of my own ethnic origin. Once againmy apologies. Perhaps if earlier I had been educated in a particular discipline, history for example, I might do the research that would answer: why does all this happen and continue to happen? But I am a writer with minimal education, so it is not the materials if history that I examine, but its spirit. This I began with the tetralogy Bumi Manusia, particularly working on the currents that ebbed and flowed during the period of Indonesia's National Awakening. And so there came to be a new reality, a literary reality, a downstream reality, whose origin was an upstream reality, that is, a historical reality.8 A literary reality that contains within it a reorientation and evaluation of civilization and culture, which is precisely not contained in the historical reality. So it is that the literary work is a sort of thesis, an infant that on its own begins to grow in the superstructure of the life of its readers' society.9 It is the same with new discoveries in every field, that carry society a step forward. So I do not write escapist fiction either, nor do I serve the status quo. It is necessary that I emphasize the problem of power, because it is this that tends to turn people into bandits, above all if they have held it for decades and, without ever knowing the spirit of Verlichting, Aufklaerung,11 remain in thrall to "kampung" civilization and culture. Indeed many scholars (and many more to come) publish their research on various aspects of the New Order. They help us in many ways to understand many things. But as a person and a writer who shares in bearing the burden of change, I look at it according to national criteria. The era of Soekarno and the Trisakti doctrine was nothing but a sort of thesis. The New Order, an antithesis. Therefore, for me, it is something that in fact cannot be written about yet, a process that cannot yet be written as literature, that does not yet constitute a national process in its totality, because it is in fact still heading for its synthesis. As individuals, who are armed only with their own selves, writers are naturally under the greatest pressure. Still, whatever befalls them, their personal experience is also the experience of their people, and the experience of their people is also their personal experience. A part of this experience, small or large or the whole lot, will erupt in their writings, and will return to their people in the form of new realities, literary realities. That is why the truth of fiction is also the truth of history. Never mind mass murder, the smallest of thefts is criminal, and all of it can happen only because of "kampung" civilization and culture, the social culture and civilization of peoples who are isolated, who feel insecure and threatened because of their own acts, and for whom masks and robes of holiness become the uniform of a parade fascinating enough to be staged as a comic-book drama. Once more--my apologies. Jakarta, November 1991

I Have Closed the Book on Power (adapted from https://sites.google.com/site/pramoedyasite/home/works-in-translation/i-have-closedthe-book-on-power)

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Saya sudah tutup buku dengan kekuasaan Suara Independen no.3/I, August 1995 Translated by Alex G Bardsley You once said that many of your literary works take their setting from periods of great or fundamental change in this nation, periods of crisis. Why are you drawn to this? Well, this is because I want to know my own self as [part of] a nation. With the quartet [of which] Child of All Nations [is part], it is the great social-cultural changes leading up to the national awakening, that would produce liberation. My book Arus Balik (coming out this August) tells of the change from traditional independence to colonial possession. What did you get from Lekra? Nothing of course. I'm a solo flight. Can't command and can't be ordered around. There was nothing. On the contrary, nothing but quarrels came out of it.

An Interview with Pramoedya Ananta Toer by Sebastian Tong and Fong Foong Mei (adapted from https://sites.google.com/site/pramoedyasite/home/works-in-translation/interview-by-sebastian-tong-and-fong-foong-mei) The following interview took place on 26 December 1996 at Pramoedya's home in Jakarta, Indonesia. Pramoedya's editor and friend, Yusuf Ishak, was also present. Q: You began telling the story of Minke and Nyai Ontosoroh to your fellow Tapol [Indonesian acronym for tahanan politik or political prisoner] on Buru as a way of reviving their morale. This form of story-telling is similar to the performance of the dalang [wayang puppet-master] and, in fact, critics have compared the Quartet to "traditional Javanese wayang". Is this an accurate description of the novels? Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Yes ... comparing it with the Javanese Wayang was begun by Professor Chun from Australia and then followed by other critics. But according to my own opinion I have long abandoned the Wayang concepts. Q: Therefore the Wayang concepts are unrelated to these four books? PAT: Ya, The Fugitive (Perburuan) was influenced by the Wayang but since then, no more. I have cast off all Javanese influences, not merely the Wayang alone, but all Javanese influences. Q: But in This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia), Minke imagines himself to be a Javanese knight while Annelies is frequently compared to a fairy-tale queen and even Banowati [a Wayang character]. PAT: I am a critic of Javanese culture. While I have consciously used Javanese elements, I have done so with a critical eye, not under its influence. On the other hand, I have received the good values of Java, those that are decadent I have rejected. Q: But have they influenced the form of the novels? PAT: Actually, I don't really like discussing my own works. Q: Why did you decide to suddenly change the first person narrator from Minke to Pangemanann in House of Glass (Rumah Kaca)? PAT: It was not a sudden change, it was part of the concept since the beginning. Q: Do you fear the spread of American popular culture -- in terms of language, music and film -- among Indonesian youth? PAT: No, everything which is beneficial to national or individual growth is good. We use Roman letters: its worth is unquestionable, it helps our development. Also the use of paper ... [points to paper printed with the interview questions]

Democracy Is An Individual Choice (adapted from http://www.ceri-sciencespo.com/archive/november/intpat.pdf) Conducted and edited by Romain Bertrand

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A Plea for Indonesia's 'Silent Millions' (adapted from http://bebeth009.blogspot.co.uk/2005/02/pramoedyas-80th-birthday.html) The Washington Post Sunday, June 7, 1998 Q&A Q. Please explain the connection between the Javanese shadow play called wayang and Indonesian politics. A. Wayang is our most popular form of traditional theater. The wayang stories are essentially mythical battles involving gods and kings, good and evil, engaged in constant intrigue and conflict, while the common people stand aside in powerless awe. The stories are performed to the masses in open-air theaters, broadcast on the radio and aired on television. The driving force behind each performance is the dalang, the puppet master. He is the ultimate mover of the plot and has control over the destinies of all the characters. The majority of Indonesian politicians are from Javanese ethnic origins and, therefore, are influenced by the wayang stories from early childhood. However, our independence movement in 1945 set forth an ideal of a democratic and modern Indonesia, where the world of the wayang has no place. Unfortunately, that ideal of democracy never materialized. That's why references to the wayang are still made to explain what's going on politically and also at times to manipulate people.

Los Angeles Times Interview (adapted from http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jun/06/opinion/op-44632) Escaping Indonesia's Iron Fist in Fiction, But not in Life June 06, 1999 | Steve Proffitt Q: How do you see the country evolving that base of shared colonial experience to create its own political culture? A: I have said again and again that this is a test for the young generation of Indonesians. How they deal with this question is key to the future of the nation. The older generation, under the new order, has failed. Q: But in so many countries, intellectuals were a key force in bringing about social change. Do you see Indonesia's intellectuals as part of the failed generation you referred to? A: Yes, and they have been part of the problem. Indonesian intellectuals cowered under Suharto's feet. They are supposed to be the pioneers in the resistance against oppression. Why didn't they speak out? Perhaps because of the long tradition of colonial paternalism. Indonesia is a country of yes men. Whatever those in power ask, Indonesians find it too easy to simply be hypocritical and say yes. Q: How has this, your first visit to the United States, changed your opinion about this country? A: Whatever impressions I have are, of course, immediate, and I have not had a great deal of time to fully digest all that I have seen. What I knew about the United States I learned from books. This history of your country is filled with oppression. But when I arrived here, I saw how the different peoples and different races live together, peacefully. I saw this, and it made me cry, because I want this for Indonesia.

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Pramoedya Talks about Indonesia and Japan (adapted from http://www.asianmonth.com/prize/english/lecture/pdf/11_02.pdf)

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