Beyond the Dutch Indies Colonial Memory of the Second and Third Generation Indo in Literary Texts and Monuments
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Beyond the Dutch Indies Colonial Memory of the Second and Third Generation Indo in Literary Texts and Monuments Gwen Kerkhof Mogot Studentnumber: 3476294 Researchmaster Comparative Literary Studies 30-10-2014 Masterthesis Supervisor: Dr. Susanne Knittel Second Assessor: Prof. dr. Ann Rigney For Pake. Not a preface with your story, but a dedication. Index Introduction .............................................................................................................................................4 Chapter I: Four Pillars that Sustain the Framework 1.1. Introduction: Literary texts and monuments as ‘lieux de mémoire’ .............................................. 11 1.2. ‘Lieux de mémoire’ (Sites of Memory) Defined .............................................................................. 12 1.3. Nostalgia: A Longing For A Home that Never Was ......................................................................... 18 1.4. Trauma Theory and ‘Indisch Zwijgen’ ............................................................................................. 23 1.5. Postmemory: Transgenerational Transmission of Memory ........................................................... 26 1.6. The Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................ 28 Chapter II: A Historical Overview 2.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 30 2.2. The Early Days ................................................................................................................................ 30 2.3. The Second World War, the ‘Bersiap’ and the Ending of Colonial Rule ......................................... 32 2.4. Migration to the Netherlands ........................................................................................................ 35 2.5. Memory and Identity Making ......................................................................................................... 37 Chapter III: Novels as Sites of Memory 3.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 40 3.2. The Reading Experience and Reader’s Response Theory ............................................................... 40 3.3. Eveline Stoel’s Asta’s ogen ............................................................................................................. 42 3.4. Asta’s ogen and the Reader ........................................................................................................... 48 3.5. Asta’s ogen as ‘lieu’ and Second/Third Generation Indos as ‘milieu de mémoire’........................ 53 3.6. Een meisje van honderd by Marion Bloem ..................................................................................... 54 3.7. Een meisje van honderd and the Reader ........................................................................................ 61 3.8. Een meisje van honderd as ‘Lieu’ .................................................................................................... 64 3.9. A Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 65 Chapter IV: Monuments and Countermonuments 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 67 4.2. The Origins of the Van Heutsz Monument in Amsterdam ............................................................. 67 4.3. The Van Heutsz Monument as Countermonument ....................................................................... 70 4.4. The Van Heutsz Monument as ‘Lieu’ .............................................................................................. 75 4.5. The Origins of the Indië Monument Amstelveen ........................................................................... 77 4.6. Commemoration as a Way to Give Voice to Memory.................................................................... 79 4.7. The Indië Monument Amstelveen as ‘Lieu’ .................................................................................... 81 4.8. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 83 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 86 Works Cited ........................................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix I: Reader’s Responses Online Request ................................................................................ 99 Appendix II: Reading Responses by My Family on Asta’s ogen ........................................................ 107 Appendix III: The Van Heutsz Monument .......................................................................................... 112 Appendix IV: Indië Monument Amstelveen ...................................................................................... 114 Kerkhof Mogot 4 Introduction “Een halfbloed is een mens die zich van beiderlei afkomst gelijkelijk bewust is. In mijn opstellen zoek ik naar een formulering van die bewustheid.” – Tjalie Robinson1 The author Tjalie Robinson (1911-1974) was a leading figure in the Indo-community in the Netherlands during the 1950s and 60s. Indo-Europeans, henceforth Indos2, are descendants of both Dutch and native inhabitants of the colony and, as a result of this double heritage, they have always moved between the Dutch colonizers and the natives. The hybridity of such an identity continued once large groups of Indos, after decolonization, moved to the Netherlands. Robinson’s quotation illustrates the heightened consciousness of identity this group has. This study has emerged from the question of how this heightened consciousness manifests itself and is employed in the contemporary postcolonial Dutch society. In 2008-2009 three books3 were published within the framework of the research project “Bringing History Home,” which charted “a history of identity politics in relation to ‘postcolonial immigrants’” (Legêne: 54). The project presents Indos as the ‘exemplary migrant’ who possesses a “postcolonial bonus” (Oostindie 2010: 14) and one of the scholars involved in the project even argues that Indos and ‘Indische’ culture have become part of the Dutch national heritage (van Leeuwen: 18- 19).The observations of this study are meant to offer a contrast to the current issues with migrants from Morroco and Turkey, who are not perceived as model immigrants. In my opinion, considering Indos as ‘exemplary migrants’ downplays the necessity to look at the contemporary position of this group in Dutch society. Indos, as an ethnic group, are a living element of the colonial memory of the Dutch Indies, which is not without its tensions and contradictions. Contemporary generations of Indos struggle with the role this memory plays in determining their identity. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse how the memory of the Dutch Indies influences second and third generation Indo identity and how is it performed/ represented/ manifested through cultural artifacts. 1 As qtd by Nieuwenhuis, Rob. “Jan Boon, Tjalie Robinson, Vincent Mahieu”. In: Mahieu, Vincent. Verzameld Werk. Amsterdam: Querido, 1992. p 489. 2 This abbreviation is generaly used as term for self-identification by Indo-Europeans and a common term since the early days of the Dutch colony. 3 Bosma, Ulbe. Terug uit de koloniën: zestig jaar postkoloniale migranten en hun organisaties. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2009. Leeuwen van, Lizzy. Ons Indisch erfgoed: zestig jaar strijd om cultuur en identiteit. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker, 2008. Oostindie, Gerrit Jan. Postkoloniaal Nederland : vijfenzestig jaar vergeten, herdenken, verdringen. Amsterdam: Bakker, 2010. Kerkhof Mogot 5 The colonial memory of the Dutch Indies is a narrative that is a combination of ‘Indisch zwijgen’ (silence to cover up trauma) and nostalgia for Tempo Doeloe. The latter term expresses a longing for the Dutch Indies and the romanticized ease with which life happened in the East. This form of nostalgia was widespread in popular culture. Van Leeuwen states: “De Indische nostalgie als publieke cultuur bood echter in de eerste plaats een aantrekkelijk en risicoloos format om met de pijnlijke erfenis van het ‘verloren Indië’ om te gaan” (100). The form of nostalgia that was practiced, according to van Leeuwen, made the performance of ‘Indische cultuur’ a widely accessible and riskless enterprise, it became a “hegemonic discourse” (Legêne: 63). That the ‘Indische cultuur’ was so widely accepted, symbolized through the broadly spread ‘Indische’ cuisine, makes the Indo an ‘exemplary migrant’—or so Ons Indisch ergfoed wants us to believe. While van Leeuwen argues that the ‘Indisch cultuur’ has become part of the whole Dutch community, the historian Andrew Goss states that the Indo-European culture or rather Dutch colonial history in general is always set apart, “bracketed”, in the wider Dutch culture. Nevertheless, the colonial memory seen through the prism of nostalgia for Tempo Doeloe has become part of a discourse that is firmly embedded in Dutch (contemporary) culture, as Pamela Pattynama argues in several of her works. Indos are caught