Date: Sat, 05 Oct 1996 23:53:56 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: postcolonial theorising about Indonesia


It occurs to me that for folks considering postcolonial theorizing about 
Indonesia an early work might be THE COLOR CURTAIN (1956) by African 
American novelist Richard Wright who went to Indonesia in 1955 to report 
on the Bandung conference. Wright offers sharp observations on living 
conditions and politics in Indonesia and his angle on the Bandung and its 
effect on the US and the West deserves attention. Wright's book is of a 
piece with his other political commentary from the 1950s in books such as 
BLACK POWER, WHITE MAN LISTEN, PAGAN SPAIN, etc. All these books have 
appeared in paperback reprints with new introductions and afterwords. The 
COLOR CURTAIN is a BANNER BOOK from the UNiversity Press of Mississippi 
Press with original foreword by Gunnar Myrdal and a new afterword by me.

Amritjit Singh
Rhode Island College
Phone: 401-456-8660


On Sun, 15 Sep 1996, Azfar Hussain wrote:

> 
> I'm not sure if "ALL (emphasis mine) postcolonial theorising about
> Indonesia", as Dr Talib has so emphatically supposed (rather proposed),
> "SHOULD BEGIN (emphasis mine) with Benedict Anderson" and his
> "Indonesianism." My scepticism is not certainly intended to undermine the
> prospects of Andersonian perspectives, nor is it meant to preclude the
> possibilty of examining the "Indonesianism" of Anderson, who, in Mr Talib's
> words, is "an Indonesianist" (and therefore, we should begin with him?).
> What, however, really troubles me is the way in which a formula-like
> recommendation tends to amount to an unqualified privileging and
> monolithicizing of a particular kind of discourse in a field where other
> useful discourses are also in a dynamic process of negotiating their
> theoretical spaces. I'm also reminded of someone telling me once that all
> postcolonial theorising about the "Orient" should begin with Said. Well,
> again, I don't mean to pooh-pooh Said's discourse, but what I resist is
> that very programmatic mode of freezing-and-fixing discourses--a mode which
> sometimes certainly well serves elitist academic politics in the metropolis
> and elsewhere.
> 
> As for postcolonial theorising about Indonesia, I think one way (among many
> others) of doing it is to take into account creative writings and other
> discourses emanating from Indonesia itself. I feel tempted to refer to
> Chairil Anwar, a poet associated with the famous "Angkatan 45"--a poet,
> some of whose prose-works powerfully engage the postcoloniality of
> Indonesian experiences (see, for example, _Complete Poetry and Prose of
> Chairil Anwar_, ed. and tr. B. Raffel, 1970). Anwar's committed,
> anti-romantic engagement with language itself--"bahasa
> indonesia"--initiates its own anti-Dutch, anti-imperial, anti-colonial, and
> postcolonial moment(s) which can certainly have its/their place(s) in one's
> postcolonial theorising about Indonesia (probably the works of Asrul Sani
> and Rivai Apin are also somewhat useful). Understandably, these writers are
> not "theorists" in the way that Anderson is one; but their (Anwar et al)
> writings, I feel, can considerably facilitate one's postcolonial theorising
> about Indonesia. Regards.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Azfar
> 
> ##############################
> AZFAR HUSSAIN
> Department of English
> Washington State University
> Pullman, Washington 99164-5020
> 
> Phones: 509-332-4405 (home)
>         509-335-1803 (work)
> E-mail: azfar-AT-wsu.edu
> ##############################
> 
>        
> 
> 
> 
> 
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