THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE and GLOBAL LITERARY INFLUENCES on the WORK of SHAHNON AHMAD Harry Aveling [email protected]

MALAY LITERATURE VOLUME 26 NUMBER 1 2013 THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND GLOBAL LITERARY INFLUENCES ON THE WORK OF SHAHNON AHMAD Harry Aveling [email protected] La Trobe University Victoria, Australia Abstract Postcolonial literary theory asserts that the colonial literature provides the models and sets the standards which writers and readers in the colonies may either imitate or resist. The major Malay author Shahnon Ahmad received his secondary and tertiary education in English and taught English at the beginning of his career. Drawing on his collection of essays Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif (2008), the paper argues that Shahnon was influenced at significant points in his literary development by his reading of literature in English and English translation–nineteenth century European and American short stories, the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and William Faulkner – but not by English (British) literature itself. Through his creation of original new works, focused on Malay society and directed towards Malay audiences, Shahnon was not a postcolonial subject but a participant in, and contributor to, the wider flow of world literature. Keywords: postcolonial, Shanon Ahmad, English literature, literature in English, world literature. Malaysian Literary Laureate Shahnon Ahmad has been stimulated at crucial points in his career by his reading of literature in English–not English Literature (literature written by British authors) but literature translated into the English language or, less often, literature written in English from outside of Great Britain. 18 2 Harry Aveling English Language.indd 18 6/14/13 9:38 AM HARRY AVELING In this article, I wish to discuss three phases of these powerful influences on Shahnon’s writing: his short story translations from nineteenth century European and twentieth century South and Southeast Asian fiction at the beginning of his professional development; his discovery of the “magical realism” of the Spanish Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as reflected in his works of the late 1980s; and the influence of the American William Faulkner’sAs I Lay Dying on works such as Tok Guru. In so doing, I wish to suggest how Shahnon has used the English language to escape the colonial influence of English national literature and enrich Malay literature through access to other literatures originally written in other languages. Finally I suggest that by this resistant reworking of foreign literary influences, Shahnon has made himself and Malay literature not the subject of the British Empire but proud members of world literature. INTRODUCTION Shahnon Ahmad grew up in a Malay world that was shaped by the presence of British colonialism. Born in the inland rural Malay district of Sik, Kedah, in 1933, he was educated at Sultan Abdul Hamid College, an English boarding school in Alor Setar, from 1947 to 1953. After completing the Senior Cambridge Examination, he taught English at the English Grammar School in Kuala Terengganu in 1954; then, after a year in the Malay regiment, he returned to Kedah in 1955, where he continued to teach English, at the Sekolah Melayu Gunung, 1955-1956, and Sekolah Melayu Bukit Besar, 1957-1962. He then returned to Sultan Abdul Hamid College, to teach Malay language and literature, until leaving in 1968 to assist with a English-Malay dictionary project at the Australian National University in Canberra. Having completed certificates as a Teacher of English in Vernacular Schools and as a Normal- Class Trained Teacher in 1957 and 1959 respectively, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies from the Australian National University in 1971 and a Master of Arts, in Malay Literature, from the Universiti Sains Malaysia in 1974.1 Shahnon has suggested that the move to teaching Malay was “something very peculiar”, adding “but no one can prevent the will of God” “satu keanehan tapi kehendak Allah siapa pun tidak boleh menghalangnya” (Shahnon, 1979:xi). The education he had received was a colonial education “dasar pelajaran adalah dasar penjajah”, in which Malay was taught once a week for a mere forty minutes and the reading material was “enough to 19 2 Harry Aveling English Language.indd 19 6/14/13 9:38 AM MALAY LITERATURE VOLUME 26 NUMBER 1 2013 put anyone to sleep”, “yang boleh melenakan pembaca”. The only thing he remembers having learned from these classes was how to translate, “Yang diajar pun banyak aspek-aspek terjemahan” (Shahnon, 1979: x). As we recognize today, Dato’ Profesor Emeritus Haji Shahnon Ahmad Sasterawan Negara has subsequently had an outstanding career as an author in Malay and as a teacher of Malay literature. This career was fed by his love of Indonesian literature from the time that he was a high school student (Shahnon, 1979:x) but it has also been stimulated at crucial points by his reading of literature in the English language–not necessarily English Literature but, most commonly, literature translated into English and, to a lesser degree, literature written in English from outside of England. This article presents a fairly simple beginning to what is overall a very complex task. With the benefit of comments, Shahnon makes on his reading of non Indonesian and Malay literature in his autobiographical collection of essays, Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif (Weltanschauung: A Literary Journey, Shahnon Ahmad, 2008–henceforth W), I wish to discuss how Shahnon has responded to three of these powerful influences in his creative journey: the nineteenth century European short story; Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Latin American “magical realism”; and William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. Having done that, I will question some of the conventional assumptions of postcolonial theory about the dominance of the metropolitan centre (England) over the colonial periphery (Malaysia) in the fields of literature and translation. “CHEKHOV– POE–MAUPASSANT” Shahnon’s education and early teaching career would almost inevitably have involved with an English curriculum that would have involved the study of British literature. He has said nothing about this in his various recollections. What we do know is that while he was still in high school, he began purchasing volumes of short stories, some in translation, written by major nineteenth century European and American authors. He continued reading translations during his military training (W, 2008:448). In the essay “Terjemahan” (Translation, W, 2008:442-47, see also Haslina Haroon, 2010) etc., Shahnon deals with his own experience of translation work. He notes his fondness for translation throughout the 1950s and comments on two of the works he translated at that time: “Kucing Hitam” (The Black Cat) from the collection Tales by Edgar Allan Poe (1845), published in Majalah Guru (W, 2008:442), year not mentioned and not listed elsewhere, and “Mata” 20 2 Harry Aveling English Language.indd 20 6/14/13 9:38 AM HARRY AVELING (The Eye) by the Pakistani author, K.T. Mohammad (published in Mastika, September 1963). He has a few things to say in the essay “Terjemahan” about the practice of translation: it is a difficult task, “amat rumit sekali” (W, 2008:445), requiring an extraordinary degree of professionalism, “menuntut profesionalisme yang agak luar biasa sekali” (W, 2008:445), an art in itself, “suatu seninya yang tersendiri” (W, 2008:446), requiring the complete rendering of both the literary and socio-cultural features of the original text for the new audience, “Yang hendak diterjemahkan itu bukan sekadar kata- kata yang mempunyai makna, tetapi juga budaya yang mendasari karya asli itu” (W, 2008:446). The essay following “Terjemahan” in Weltanschauung is entitled “Chekhov–Poe–Maupassant”. It too begins with Shahnon’s confession of his early pleasure in translation and foreign non-British literature. Although he discusses “The Black Monk” by Chekhov, “The Black Cat” and “The Tell-tale Heart” by Poe, and “Boule de Suif” by de Maupassant, there is no suggestion this time that Shahnon ever published translations of these works. Instead, the major focus of this essay is on how much he learned about writing from studying the works of these three international kings of the short story, “Tiga Raja Cerpenis Dunia” (W, 2008:448). Translations are often considered derivative and unoriginal works, lacking in creativity. Perhaps for this reason, it is seldom noted by critics that Shahnon’s first book, Setanggi (Incense, 1960), was a collection of his translations of short stories. In fact, the translated works he produced receive a very unimportant place even in his own biodata (e.g., Shahnon Ahmad, 2006:189-277, lists translations of Shahnon’s own works but not Setanggi or other translations by him). Far from being unimportant, however, the translations taught him the principles of fiction and thus formed the basis for his first tentative steps into writing (W, 2008:449). In time, Setanggi was followed by two collections of original short stories, Anjing-anjing (Dogs, 1964) and Debu Merah (Red Dust, 1965), then by the three novels which were to establish his reputation: Rentong (Rope of Ash, 1965), Terdedah (Exposed, 1965), and Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan (No Harvest but a Thorn, 1966). Mohd. Yusof Hasan has calculated that between 1957 and 1963, Shahnon published 34 original stories and 18 translated stories. The number of translated stories is significantly high. In 1960, in fact, he published more translations, 13 (ten in Setanggi), than original stories, 9 (Mohd. Yusof, 1979:15). Besides those collected in Setanggi, one translation was published in the anthology Cepu Kencana, and seven in the popular magazine Mastika (Mohd. Yusof, 1979: 21 2 Harry Aveling English Language.indd 21 6/14/13 9:38 AM MALAY LITERATURE VOLUME 26 NUMBER 1 2013 11); as Yusof does not include Poe’s “Black Cat” in his reckoning, there may be still more translations to be added to the list. The ten stories in Setanggi include the following works. “Pelajaran yang Penghabisan” (The Final Lesson) is by the Frenchman Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897).

Load more