Finding Myself in Someone Else‟S Land‟ Stories by Teachers of Literatures in English in Padang: a Postcolonial Framework by Desvalini Anwar
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„Finding Myself in Someone Else‟s Land‟ Stories by Teachers of Literatures in English in Padang: A Postcolonial Framework by Desvalini Anwar Bachelor of Arts, Padjadjaran University Master of Humanities, University of Indonesia Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University June 2016 I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Alhamdulillahirrabilaalamiin! All praise and thankfulness are due to Allah the Almighty for giving me the ability and possibilities to finish my PhD thesis. Without His blessings, I would not have been able to get through this challenging journey. A host of people have supported and assisted me directly and indirectly in many ways. To all of them, I owe my sense of deep gratitude and indebtedness. First and foremost, I wish to thank you Professor Brenton Doecke for your willingness to take over the role of Principal Supervisor during my early candidature. I am glad that you introduced me to storytelling and taught me how to construct my ‗autobiography of the question‘ in order to better understand the impulse behind my study and the aim I wanted to achieve in this endeavor. I have learned a great deal from your invaluable and constructive feedback and discussions, especially in finding my own voice as a researcher of this project. Despite your retirement, you kept giving me your scholarly guidance, advice, commitment and caring until the completion of my PhD journey. I thank you as well for all those many books you passed down to me. I would also like to express my immense gratitude to you Dr. Hossein Shohouki and Dr. Rod Neilsen for your generosity and kindness. I highly appreciate your kind efforts to proof read my final draft and provide me with valuable comments so I can have the final shape of my thesis ready for submission. Thank you very much. This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of my dosen research participants who teach English Literature in universities in Padang. I thank you for the stories you have shared with me in the three sessions of open-ended interviews that I had with each of you. I realize that my words cannot and can never thoroughly express my deep gratitude to you all. IV I sincerely thank DIKTI, the Indonesian Directorate General of Higher Education, for the scholarship grant you made available to me. Likewise, my gratitude also goes to The State University of Padang (UNP) for granting me study leave during my doctoral program in Deakin University Australia. I thank you Robyn Ficsnersky, Dr. Andrea Gallant, Sarah Buckler and Robert Macmahon for your care and great support and Deakin International Advisors: Isabelle Drouler, Jennifer Hsu, Nick Ko and Simon Goh for all your kind assistance in making some of the rough roads I travelled a lot easier. Special thanks and gratefulness are due to my loving husband Chairul (Harry) Azmi for your unremitting support and love. You have given the best care and love for our children during the thousands of hours I had spent working on my thesis in my office. Yes, thousands of hours, for thousands of words. For Putri and Faras, thank you Nak for all the warm support and love. Thank you for believing in me and for putting up with my persistence, worries and anxiety. To both of you, I dedicate my PhD thesis. I am indebted to my parents and my parents in laws whose love, encouragement, patience and unlasting prayers were the source of spirit and confidence to pursue my dream. I also thank my brothers Aan and Dody for your warm support from afar. I also want to express my gratitude to the Kealey‘s family in New Zealand whose contribution in enriching my life stories is evident in this dissertation. My thanks also go to a host of friends and fellow colleagues: Bella Illesca, a friend in need, a friend in deed. Gracias Bella! Dewi Mulia, my housemate and her family, thank you for the great companionship we had throughout our PhD journeys. Yeny Prastiwi, no more late bus trips to Clayton, Nyeh! To Icik, Ni Yet, Ying-Ying Guo, Diane & Ming, I wish you all the best. Mba Misita, Syarifah, Aima & Seli, it was great to get to know you all. My appreciation also goes to you my dear teman, Katrina Teske, for our long beautiful friendship. At the State University of Padang, my colleagues had to bear an extra load of teaching during my absence. To you all, I extend my deep appreciation and gratitude. Terima kasih semuanya! V TABLE OF CONTENTS Thesis title ………………………………………………………………. I Access to thesis ………………………………………………………………. II Candidate declaration ……………………………………………………………….III Acknowledments …………………………………………………………….....IV Table of contents ……………………………………………………………….VI Abstract ……………………………………………………………….IX Preamble: White forms, colourful contents…………………………………. 1 CHAPTER 1 ……………………………………………………………….. 2 Introduction: ‗Finding myself in someone else‘s land ..……………………….2 1.1. The wordliness of my story ……………………………………………….. 2 1.2. The autobiography of the question ……………………………………… 10 1.2.1. My polyglot world ……………………………………………………… 10 1.2.2. Early encounters with English ……………………………………… 17 1.2.3. Engaging with formal English education ……………………………… 22 1.2.4. Going ‗West‘ …………………………………………………………… 23 1.2.5. Reading English literature ……...……………………………………… 28 1.2.6. Science versus Language ........................................................................ 30 1.2.7. Engaging with the Western canon ……………………………………… 32 1.2.8. Lessons from my professional life ……………………………………… 34 1.3. Teaching English Literature in Indonesia: an overview ……………………… 38 1.4. The question that motivates my study ……………………………………… 47 1.5. Chapters outlines ……………………………………………………………… 52 CHAPTER 2 ……………………………………………………………………… 57 Reimagining Indonesia: an ongoing project? ……………………………………… 57 2.1. The inescapability of nationalism ……………………………………… 57 2.2. Benedict Anderson‘s concept of an ‗imagined community‘ ……………… 58 2.3. Distinguishing between ‗nation and state‘ ……………………………… 66 2.4. From Malay to Bahasa Indonesia: national unification for independence……. 72 2.5. The politics of imagining postcolonial Indonesia during the New Order …….. 86 CHAPTER 3 ……………………………………………………………………...102 Storytelling: a knowing practice …………………………………………….. 102 3.1. Situating ‗self‘ in context …………………………………………….. 104 3.2. The value of storytelling for research within a postcolonial framework …….. 112 3.3. Qualitative research …………………………………………………….. 117 3.4. Case studies of the teachers of literatures in English in Padang …………….. 119 3.5. Recruitment of research participants and data collection …………….. 120 3.6. Open-ended interviews …………………………………………………….. 122 3.7. Data interpretation and analysis …………………………………………….. 125 3.8. Ethical consideration …………………………………………………….. 127 VI CHAPTER 4 …………………………………………………………………….. 129 The interviewees and the research setting …………………………………….. 129 4.1. Overview of the research setting …………………………………………….. 129 4.1.1. The Minang communities: their land, religion and tradition …………….. 129 4.1.2. Marantau: leaving kampung for life betterment …………………….. 134 4.1.3. Hajj: a journey to join the Islamic ‗imagined community‘ …………….. 138 4.1.4. The Minang local‘s language ecologies …………………………….. 142 4.2. Introducing my participants and their tertiary affiliations …………….. 143 4.2.1. Universitas Negeri Padang …………………………………………….. 143 4.2.2. Universitas Andalas …………………………………………………….. 146 CHAPTER 5 …………………………………………………………………….. 148 English at the crossroads …………………………………………………….. 148 5.1. Giring: ―I learned English through western popular cultures‖ …………….. 153 5.2. Ahmad: ―English is a means of dakwah‖ …………………………….. 170 5.3. Deli: The strangeness of English: ―I finally managed to learn ‗to be‘‖ …….. 187 CHAPTER 6 …………………………………………………………………….. 196 Literary imagination within the policy restraints of the New Order …………….. 196 6.1. Giring: ―I chose the school library to escape‖ …………………………….. 201 6.2. Deli: ―My literature lesson was like a ghost‖ …………………………….. 213 6.3. Ahmad: ―I liked to join competitions‖ …………………………………….. 221 CHAPTER 7 …………………………………………………………………….. 232 Defining and negotiating identities within social spaces …………………….. 232 7.1. Giring: ―This is my habitat, Buk‖ …………………………………….. 234 7.2. Deli: ―Literature brings me to another time dimension where I can contemplate and be free‖ …………………………………………………….. 246 7.3. Ahmad: ―I joined Forum Lingkar Pena and Bengkel Sastra in my campus‖ ……………………………………………………………. 250 CHAPTER 8 ……………………………………………………………………. 256 The worliness of teaching literatures in English in Padang ……………………. 256 8.1. Giring: ―Reading was not that important for Suharto…Hey! We are building a country‖ …………………………………………………… 259 8.2. Deli: ―I don‘t think it was wrong to include Indonesian literature‖ ……. 275 8.3. Ahmad: ―Being beautiful does not mean to be white Pak, or to be slim or to be blonde ……………………………………………………………. 286 CHAPTER 9 ……………………………………………………………………. 301 Conclusion: ‗Finding myself in someone else‘s land‘-the journey continues … 301 9.1. My autobiography of the question …………………………………….. 301 9.1.1. Becoming engaged with Postcolonial Studies …………………………….. 302 9.1.2. Getting immersed in Indonesian literature in English translation …….. 305 9.1.3. Engaging with an autobiographical novel Laskar Pelangi (The Rainbow Troops) …………………………………………………….. 313 VII 9.1.3.1. Tresspasing over the border …………………………………………….. 315 9.1.3.2. Laskar Pelangi: a window to reimagine Indonesia …………………..... 317 9.1.3.3. Reflecting on Laskar Pelangi ……………………………………. 323 9.2. Lessons learned from our stories ……………………………………………. 325 REFERENCES …………………………………………………………….