DOCSLIB.ORG

C'est Grâce À Un Romancier De Hollande Que Max Havelaar Existe

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
C'est Grâce À Un Romancier De Hollande Que Max Havelaar Existe Le Matin Dimanche 15 mars 2020 Acteurs 21 C’est grâce à un romancier de Hollande que Max Havelaar existe ● Max Havelaar n’est pas un pionnier du commerce équitable, mais le titre d’un livre hollandais paru en 1860. Les 200 ans de la naissance de son auteur, Multatuli, sont l’occasion de remonter aux sources du combat anticolonialiste. IVAN RADJA [email protected] Ce buste, en plein cœur d’Amsterdam, parle à tous les Hollandais et laisse sans doute de marbre l’écrasante majorité des touristes. Multatuli? Inscrivez-le aux abonnés absents de la mémoire collective européenne. Et pourtant: à chaque fois que vous achetez une livre de café, des ba- nanes, du sucre brut, du miel ou des avo- cats labellisés Max Havelaar, ou Fairtrade, c’est à lui que vous le devez. De son vrai nom Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887), ce fonctionnaire hollandais parti dès l’âge de 18 ans pour les Indes néerlandaises, en Indonésie, est l’auteur du livre «Max Havelaar», publié en 1860, considéré comme le premier brûlot anti- colonialiste de la littérature. Huit ans plus tôt, «La case de l’oncle Tom», de l’écrivaine Multatuli, littérale- abolitionniste Harriet Beecher Stowe, ré- ment «J’ai beau- quisitoire contre le traitement réservé aux coup enduré». esclaves des plantations de coton du sud C’est sous ce pseu- des États-Unis, une forme de «colonia- donyme qu’Eduard lisme intérieur», avait fait grand bruit. Douwes Dekker pu- blia le roman «Max Oppression des Javanais au XIXe siècle Havelaar» en 1860. Dekker l’a-t-il lu? Probablement, bien qu’il À droite, gravure n’y ait aucune certitude sur ce point. Sans du XIXe représen- remettre en question le principe même tant un fonction- des colonies, il y dénonce cependant les naire hollandais conditions de travail épouvantables des face à des paysans indigènes de la province de Lebak, dans la de Java. partie occidentale de l’île de Java. À l’épo- Nattee Chalermtiragool/ que, Java est le centre de l’État colonial Alamy, DR, DR hollandais, et les conditions imposées aux Javanais sont strictes: chaque village doit consacrer 20% de ses terres aux besoins du gouvernement et fournir de la main-d’œuvre non payée pour la culture, notamment du café, au minimum 66 jours par an. Dans les faits, les tra- vailleurs réquisitionnés travaillent bien plus que cela, et très vite 100% des champs sont destinés à la culture d’expor- les populations locales, se heurtent à des bliés en 1876, puis d’autres morceaux bel en Suisse, il se souvient que la traduc- tation, provoquant de terribles famines. murs, et le contraindront à présenter sa choisis en 1907. Préfacier, Anatole France tion en allemand du livre «Max Havelaar», «La famine? Sur cette île de Java, riche, démission dans les années 1850. La colo- écrit: «En tous pays, de tout temps, le en 1993, a donné un élan certain au com- fertile, bénie des dieux, la famine? Oui, nisation néerlandaise eut donc un effet nombre des hommes qui pensent est pe- merce équitable en Suisse alémanique. Ce lecteur. Il y a quelques années encore, des «Sur cette île dramatique en Indonésie. Durant cette tit; le nombre de ceux qui osent dire ce nom est aujourd’hui familier dans les pays districts entiers ont été dépeuplés par la période, quelque 42 800 Européens ont qu’ils osent penser est moindre. Ils n’y où la fondation le porte expressément, faim. Des mères vendaient leurs enfants de Java, imposé leur loi à plus de 12,5 millions d’in- sont nulle part encouragés.» Il faudra at- comme c’est le cas en Suisse, en France ou pour un peu de nourriture. Des mères ont riche, fertile, digènes, et plus de 860 000 paysans dont tendre 2003 et le travail des Éditions Ac- en Belgique et aux Pays-Bas, moins dans mangé leurs enfants», écrit-il dans «Max bénie la récolte de café était considérée comme tes Sud pour disposer du roman dans son ceux où le label porte le nom de Fairtrade. Havelaar». des dieux, insuffisante étaient ainsi contraints de tra- intégralité en français, mais l’ouvrage est vailler sans percevoir de salaire. aujourd’hui est épuisé, y compris dans sa Le Guillaume Tell hollandais Une œuvre complexe la famine? Lors de sa parution, «le livre a fait l’effet version poche chez Babel. En Hollande, en revanche, «Max Have- Frondeur, libertaire, anarchiste, Eduard Oui, lecteur. d’un coup de tonnerre, explique Jelle laar» est «numéro un sur la liste des livres Dekker avance pourtant masqué, dans un Il y a quel- Stegeman, professeur émérite de littéra- 1988: naissance du label les plus célèbres et est considéré comme ouvrage à la structure complexe, construit ture néerlandaise et auteur d’une thèse S’il n’était associé au célèbre label du com- le roman le plus important de l’histoire de comme des poupées russes, ce qui en fait ques années sur le sujet à l’Université de Zurich. Ce fut merce équitable, le nom même de Max la littérature néerlandaise», souligne Jelle d’un point de vue stylistique une œuvre encore, la première protestation contre le colonia- Havelaar aurait sombré dans l’oubli. C’est Stegeman. Multatuli y est une figure na- très originale pour son temps. Max Have- des districts lisme sous la forme d’une œuvre litté- en 1988 que le prêtre-ouvrier Francisco tionale, «tout comme Guillaume Tell pour laar est le nom de l’un des protagonistes entiers raire.» Multatuli le définit comme étant un Van der Hoff fonde avec Nico Roozen l’as- la Suisse». du livre, dont l’expérience est racontée «pusaka», c’est-à-dire un «héritage», pour sociation, et le label, Max Havelaar, au- Le coup d’envoi des célébrations pour le par un nommé Stern, porte-plume d’un ont été son fils, mais aussi ses compatriotes et les jourd’hui présent dans 17 pays avec café, bicentenaire de sa naissance a été donné fonctionnaire pragmatique, Droogstop- dépeuplés générations futures. thé, miel, banane, cacao, sucre, jus début février par le roi Willem-Alexander, pel, lequel s’appuie sur les notes d’un cer- par la faim» d’orange, fruits et fleurs, tous produits avec l’inauguration d’une plaque commé- tain Sjaalman (Homme au châle). Ce n’est Encensé par Marx, Freud, Anatole dans le respect des droits de l’homme et morative en son nom. La maison natale de qu’à la toute fin du livre que l’auteur se Extrait France, Hermann Hesse… de l’environnement. «Elle était orientée Eduard Dekker à Amsterdam, transformée «dévoile», sous le pseudonyme de Multa- de «Max Ses admirateurs sont nombreux, et non d’abord sur le café, tout comme en Belgi- en musée depuis 1910, égrènera de nom- tuli, du latin «multa», beaucoup, et «tuli», Havelaar» des moindres: Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, que avec son extension en 1991», précise breuses manifestations tout au long de supporté. Littéralement: «J’ai beaucoup qui le range parmi ses dix livres préférés, Rolf Buser, le tout premier CEO de Max l’année, et des pièces de monnaie ont été enduré.» Car ses tentatives d’infléchir les puis plus tard Hermann Hesse ou Heinrich Havelaar Suisse. «Nous sommes totale- frappées à son effigie. Aujourd’hui encore, pratiques du Résident européen, complice Mann. En France, en pleine expansion co- ment indépendants de la fondation hol- du café Max Havelaar provient de l’île de du Régent local, lui-même cruel envers loniale, et donc peu réceptive à ce type de landaise, tant structurellement que finan- Java; l’occasion de rendre un sérieux coup ses propres compatriotes, et de soutenir discours, seuls quelques extraits sont pu- cièrement.» Concernant la notoriété du la- de chapeau à Eduard Douwes Dekker..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Teaching Tales from Djakarta.Pdf (636.2Kb)
    2 Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………….………… 3 Notes on Teaching Tales from Djakarta ………………………………………………… 5 Biography ………………………………………………………………………………... 8 History ………………………………………………………………………...……...… 11 Critical Lenses ……………………………………………………………………..…... 18 Social Realism ………………………………………………….……………… 18 Colonial and Postcolonial Theory.…………………………………………..….. 21 The National Allegory ……………………………………………………….… 26 Nostalgia ……………………………………………………………...….….…. 30 Study Guide …………………………………………………………………….……… 33 Bibliography & Resources ………………………………………………………..……. 43 List of Images 1. Pramoedya, 1950’s From A Teeuw, Modern Indonesian Literature. Courtesy of KITLV . Used by permission 2. Pramoedya, 1990’s From Indonesia, 1996.Courtesy of Benedict R. O’G. Anderson and Cornell Southeast Asia Program Publications. Used by permission. 3. Indo-European woman and her children, presumably in Bandoeng Courtesy of KITLV. Used by permission. 4. Ketjapi player in Jakarta Courtesy of KITLV. Used by permission. 5. G.E. Raket and his girlfriend, presumably in Batavia Courtesy of KITLV. Used by permission. 6. Prostitute with child camping in and underneath old railway carriages at Koningsplein-Oost [East King's Square] in Jakarta Courtesy of KITLV. Used by permission 3 Introduction Pramoedya Ananta Toer has long been one of the most articulate voices coming from decolonized Indonesia. A prolific author, Pramoedya has written short fiction, novels, histories, and social and cultural commentary about his native land. He is frequently mentioned as a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Pramoedya’s perennial candidacy for this award is almost certainly based on his epic tetralogy about the birth of Indonesian nationalism, the Buru quartet. In these novels, which tell the story of Raden Mas Minke, a native journalist and founding member of several political and social organizations in the Indies, Pramoedya draws a vivid picture of the colonial period: approximately 1900-1915.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Study of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's
    COLONIAL IDENTITIES DURING COLONIALISM IN INDONESIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER’S CHILD OF ALL NATIONS AND MULTATULI’S MAX HAVELAAR AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters By LETYZIA TAUFANI Student Number: 054214109 ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2008 i ii iii “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea especially when we have only one.” Paul Claudel iv This Undergraduate Thesis Dedicated to: My Daughter Malia Larasati Escloupier and My Husband Cédric v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Letyzia Taufani Nomor Mahasiswa : 054214109 Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul: COLONIAL IDENTITIES DURING COLONIALISM IN INDONESIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER’S CHILD OF ALL NATIONS AND MULTATULI’S MAX HAVELAAR Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalty kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 1 Desember 2008 Yang menyatakan (Letyzia Taufani) vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank and express my greatest gratitude to all of those who gave me guidance, strength and opportunity in completing this thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • Multatuli, 1860)
    COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Edited by Franco Moretti: The Novel, Volume 2: Forms and Themes is published by Princeton University Press and copyrighted, © 2006, by Princeton University Press. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher, except for reading and browsing via the World Wide Web. Users are not permitted to mount this file on any network servers. Follow links Class Use and other Permissions. For more information, send email to: [email protected] BENEDICT ANDERSON Max Havelaar (Multatuli, 1860) These were truly four anni mirabiles. In 1818 were born Ivan Turgenev and Emily Brontë, in 1819, Herman Melville and George Eliot; and in 1821, Fy­ odor Dostoevsky and Gustave Flaubert. Right in the middle, in 1820, came Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his nom de plume, Multatuli. His novel Max Havelaar, which over the past 140 years has been translated into more than forty languages and has given him a certain international rep­ utation, appeared in 1860. It was thus sandwiched between, on the one side, On the Eve (1860), The Mill on the Floss (1860), George Sand’s Le marquis de Villemer (1860), Great Expectations (1860–61) Adam Bede, The Confi­ dence Man, Madame Bovary, and Oblomov (all in 1857); and on the other, Silas Marner (1861), Fathers and Sons, Salammbo, and Les misérables (1862), War and Peace (starting in 1865), and Crime and Punishment (1866). This was the generation in which Casanova’s “world republic of letters,” subdivi­ sion the novel, hitherto dominated by French and British males, was first profoundly challenged from its margins: by formidable women in the Channel-linked cores and by extraordinary figures from beyond the Atlantic and across the steppe.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcolonial Analysis on Multatuli's Max Havelaar
    JELLT, VOL 2, NO 2 Desember 2017 printed ISSN : 2548-7728 E- ISSN: 2599-0373 POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS ON MULTATULI’S MAX HAVELAAR Herminus Efrando Pabur ABSTRACT This work aims at sharing a postcolonial analysis on the content and the message in Max Havelaar written by Mulatuli in 1859 in Belgia and then published in Dutch in 1860. Max Havelaar could be assumed as a postcolonial literary work. Besides applying the postcolonial theory, the anthropology theory is also considered being used in the analysis process. The finding shows that Max Havelaar is clearly a postcolonial literary work. Despite basing on its year of publication and place of publication, Max Havelaar is hard to be categorized as a postcolonial literary work. However, its content, message, and author‘s background, Max Havelaar can be viewed as a postcolonial literary work. The finding also reveals that Max Havelaar has a unique and strong characteristic namely the ability to move the sense of humanity of its readers especially for those are facing colonialization. Keywords: Max Havelaar, Postcolonial Literature.Multatuli Introduction Nowadays literature becomes more interesting. It is because literature offers many things: moral value, new knowledge and even entertainment. By the benefit given by literature many people started to like literature. An important point to be noted regarding the literature (literary works: Poem, Novel and Drama) is its function as ‗mirror‘ (Gann, 2012). It means that literary works reflect the life of people or reflect the society. Maru in his dissertation entitled Puritanism in American Presidents: A Study on The Inaugural Addresses from Reagan to Obama (2013) quoting Tate stated, ―Many of the forces at work in the fiction are clearly social origin‖ (p.38).
    [Show full text]
  • Nasionalisme Kulit Putih: Ernest Douwes Dekker Malaikat Pemberani
    Nasionalisme Kulit Putih: Ernest Douwes Dekker Malaikat Pemberani Samingan e-mail: [email protected] Program Studi Pendidikan Sejarah, FKIP, Universitas Flores ABSTRAK: Permasalahan dalam penelitian ini bagaimana bentuk nasionalisme orang Indo Ernest Douwes Dekker untuk memperjuangkan kesetaraan antara semua lapisan dengan orang Eropa. Lewat perjuangan yang berliku-liku mengalami berbagai pembuangan telah melahirkan rasa nasionalisme sebagai dasar pinjakan untuk Indonesia Merdeka. Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimana bentuk nasionalisme Ernest Douwes Dekker yang diperjuangkan mencapai kesetaraan antara orang kulit putih Eropa dengan orang pribumi dan orang Indo. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan metode Sejarah (historical method). Adapun langkah-langkah yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini, yaitu pertama adalah mengumpulkan sumber (heuristik), ke dua adalah kritik sumber atau verifikasi, langkah ke tiga adalah interpretasi, langkah ke empat rekontruksi historiografi (penulisan) sejarah. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa: Douwes Dekker merupakan seorang keturunan Belanda. Keprihatinannya atas penindasan bangsa kolonial terhadap kaum Pribumi mengetuk hati nuraninya untuk memperjuangkan kaum Indo (Keturunan Belanda) Pribumi dari segala diskriminasi. Langkah nyata yang ditempuh Douwes Dekker guna menyuarakan aspirasinya ditempuh dengan mendirikan partai politik atau dikenal dengan Indische Partij. Tjipto dikenal menentang sistem feodal yang telah mengakar, sementara Soewardi yang merupakan
    [Show full text]
  • Culture System” in Dutch Indonesia 1830–1870: How Rawls’S Original Position Ethics Were Violated
    University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Business and Law January 2006 The “Culture System” in Dutch Indonesia 1830–1870: How Rawls’s Original Position Ethics were Violated Parulian Silaen University of Wollongong, [email protected] Ciorstan J. Smark University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers Part of the Business Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Silaen, Parulian and Smark, Ciorstan J.: The “Culture System” in Dutch Indonesia 1830–1870: How Rawls’s Original Position Ethics were Violated 2006. https://ro.uow.edu.au/commpapers/135 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] The “Culture System” in Dutch Indonesia 1830–1870: How Rawls’s Original Position Ethics were Violated Abstract The “Culture System” was enforced in Java and other parts of Indonesia by the Dutch colonial government between 1830 and 1870. Under this system, Indonesian farmers were forced to put aside part of their land and labour for growing cash crops such as sugar, coffee, indigo, tobacco and pepper, so that they could pay their land tax to the Dutch. This paper examines the ramifications of two aspects of the Culture System and the policies that allowed its administration. The first of these is the segregation of education and access to higher-level employment on the grounds of race. The second is the monopoly of transportation and trade held by the NHM (Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij) during this period.
    [Show full text]
  • Postcolonial Analysis on Multatuli's Max Havelaar
    JELLT, VOL 2, NO 2 Desember 2017 printed ISSN : 2548-7728 E- ISSN: 2599-0373 POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS ON MULTATULI’S MAX HAVELAAR Herminus Efrando Pabur ABSTRACT This work aims at sharing a postcolonial analysis on the content and the message in Max Havelaar written by Mulatuli in 1859 in Belgia and then published in Dutch in 1860. Max Havelaar could be assumed as a postcolonial literary work. Besides applying the postcolonial theory, the anthropology theory is also considered being used in the analysis process. The finding shows that Max Havelaar is clearly a postcolonial literary work. Despite basing on its year of publication and place of publication, Max Havelaar is hard to be categorized as a postcolonial literary work. However, its content, message, and author‘s background, Max Havelaar can be viewed as a postcolonial literary work. The finding also reveals that Max Havelaar has a unique and strong characteristic namely the ability to move the sense of humanity of its readers especially for those are facing colonialization. Keywords: Max Havelaar, Postcolonial Literature.Multatuli Introduction Nowadays literature becomes more interesting. It is because literature offers many things: moral value, new knowledge and even entertainment. By the benefit given by literature many people started to like literature. An important point to be noted regarding the literature (literary works: Poem, Novel and Drama) is its function as ‗mirror‘ (Gann, 2012). It means that literary works reflect the life of people or reflect the society. Maru in his dissertation entitled Puritanism in American Presidents „Mark of Power: A Study on The Inaugural Addresses from Reagan to Obama (2013) quoting Tate stated, ―Many of the forces at work in the fiction are clearly social origin‖ (p.38).
    [Show full text]
  • Usaha Ernest Francois Douwes Dekker Dalam Mengembangkan Nasionalisme Di Hindia Belanda”
    PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI USAHA ERNEST FRANCOIS DOUWES DEKKER DALAM MENGEMBANGKAN NASIONALISME DI HINDIA BELANDA MAKALAH Diajukan untuk Memenuhi Salah Satu Syarat Memperoleh Gelar Sarjana Pendidikan Program Studi Pendidikan Sejarah Oleh: Clemens Dimas C.W NIM : 131314018 PROGRAM STUDI PENDIDIKAN SEJARAH JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN SOSIAL FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2018 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI USAHA ERNEST FRANCOIS DOUWES DEKKER DALAM MENGEMBANGKAN NASIONALISME DI HINDIA BELANDA MAKALAH Diajukan untuk Memenuhi Salah Satu Syarat Memperoleh Gelar Sarjana Pendidikan Program Studi Pendidikan Sejarah Oleh: Clemens Dimas C.W NIM : 131314018 PROGRAM STUDI PENDIDIKAN SEJARAH JURUSAN PENDIDIKAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN SOSIAL FAKULTAS KEGURUAN DAN ILMU PENDIDIKAN UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2018 i PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI ii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI iii PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI HALAMAN PERSEMBAHAN Makalah ini saya persembahkan untuk: Kedua orang tua saya “Bapak Ignatius Yoseph Sumiran dan Ibu Rosalia Sukendah” adik saya “Eugenius Patria Chandra W” yang selalu mendoakan dan memberi dukungan dan semangat kepada saya selama mengerjakan makalah. iv PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI MOTTO Indie voor Indiers (Hindia untuk orang Hindia) (Ernest Francois Eugene Douwes Dekker) Makin keras tindakan mereka, makin besar pula kekuatan yang kami susun (Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo) Sebuah ide atau gagasan yang radikal tidak akan pernah bisa dibendung oleh kekuatan manusia (Clemens Dimas C.W.) v PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN KARYA Saya menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa makalah yang saya tulis ini tidak memuat karya orang lain, kecuali yang telah disebutkan dalam kutipan maupun daftar pustaka, sebagaimana layaknya penulisan karya ilmiah. Yogyakarta, 7 Maret 2018 Penulis Clemens Dimas C.W.
    [Show full text]
  • Occasional Writer, Sensational Writer: 295
    Occasional Writer, Sensational Writer: 295 Chapter 15 Occasional Writer, Sensational Writer: Multatuli as a Sentimental Benevolence Writer in the 1860s1 Laurens Ham Introduction In 2007, Darren C. Zook published a surprising article about Multatuli’s Max Havelaar (1860). According to Zook, this centrepiece of the Dutch literary can- on is a little overrated. Too often, Dutch readers have regarded Max Havelaar, the writer’s debut novel, as a wonderfully modern book which defends pro- gressive political ideas. Zook states: “Multatuli’s Max Havelaar was not an anti- colonial text and […] its stylistic innovations were not radically new and did not single-handedly invent Dutch literary modernity.”2 Admittedly, for many non-professional Dutch readers Multatuli (1820–1887) is the anti-colonial writ- er, although this interpretation may be based as much on the fact that a fair trade company adopted the name “Max Havelaar” in the 1980s as on his novels. Many important non-Dutch readers have defended an “anti-colonial” reading too: Benedict Anderson, Edward Said, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, even Vladimir Lenin.3 However, when Zook claimed that a revisionist reading of Multatuli’s works was never attempted, he certainly was wrong.4 The Dutch novelist Wil- lem Frederik Hermans, to name but one influential reader, wrote in his 1976 Multatuli biography that the author was not a revolutionary at all. Multatuli did not want to reorganize the societal structure, but he wanted individuals to change their behaviour. Admitting that it would be disastrous if Holland lost 1 This paper was realized as part of the PhD-project “The autonomy of the Dutch literary author: boundaries and possibilities.” It is part of the NWO-funded project “The power of autonomous literature: Willem Frederik Hermans” (supervised by Wilbert Smulders, Frans Ruiter and Geert Buelens).
    [Show full text]
  • Dutch Colonial Literature from the East Indies, 1600 -1950
    E. M. Beekman. Troubled Pleasures: Dutch Colonial Literature from the East Indies, 1600 -1950. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.654 pp. Liesbeth Dolk In the Netherlands, Dutch colonial literature as a field of research has attracted a great deal of attention over the last fifteen years. The starting point for this attention has undoubtedly been Rob Nieuwenhuys's literary history published in 1972 (3rd revised edition 1978, 669 pp). His Oost-Indische Spiegel. Wat Nederlandse schrijvers en dichters over Indonesia hebben geschreven, vanafde eerste jaren der Compagnie tot op heden (Mirror of the Indies. What Dutch writers and poets have written on Indonesia, from the beginning of the East Indies Company until the present) was an eye-opener and became a standard work on "Indies" literature. In his Spiegel Nieuwenhuys proves to be one of the first literary historians to apply his own, broader interpretation to the concept of "literature" by not restricting himself to the traditional literary genres, such as the novel, drama, and poetry, but also including non-fictional, "non-serious" but well-written (according to Nieuwenhuys's own aesthetic standards) personal documents like travel accounts, letters, diaries, and even scientific work. Placed within a social and historical framework, these texts proved to contain important information as a "mirror" of the Dutch colonial society and mentality at the time. Both elaborating on and reacting against Nieuwenhuys's work, in the eighties and nineties the stream of articles on Dutch-Indies literature in Holland has been growing steadily (bringing to the surface more unknown works and authors), and troublesome theoretical discussions on the correct systematic approach to texts in a history on (colonial) literature have been held.
    [Show full text]
  • History of Indonesia, Mainly the Colonial Period Through
    1 The Paradox of Post-Colonial Historic Preservation: Implications of Dutch Heritage Preservation in Modern Jakarta Marsely von Lengerke Kehoe Abstract This project explores two projects to preserve the footprint of the colonizing Dutch in post-colonial Jakarta, Indonesia, questioning their implications for contemporary Indonesia. The first, to restore and reinvigorate the historic (Dutch) center of Jakarta, preserves the urban morphology of the colonial period, which at first seems to contradict the post-colonial political situation. The second, the restoration of a Dutch colonial official’s former residence into a community center, financed by Dutch businesses active in Indonesia, appears to be a gift to the local community; I interrogate whether this Dutch building is being preserved for Indonesia, or for the Netherlands. I suggest that the complicated motives of these projects are informed by the hybrid contemporary identities that are the legacy of a colonial state, and thus these projects to preserve colonial history retain a resonance in contemporary Indonesian society. Heritage preservation generally involves the choice of a historic moment that is especially meaningful to the present identity of the group supporting preservation. In this project, I look at two heritage preservation projects that choose a moment seemingly at odds to the identity of the groups involved. In these two projects, Dutch heritage is being preserved in the former Dutch colony of Indonesia. How is this contradiction reconciled in post-colonial Indonesia? I suggest that here, the “post” of post-colonial does not represent a complete rupture with the colonial past, but instead, a state of hybrid identity, combining elements of the colonial past and the post-colonial present.
    [Show full text]
  • Max Havelaar: Multatuli, Colonial History, and the Confusion of Empire
    Searching for Max Havelaar: Multatuli, Colonial History, and the Confusion of Empire ❦ Darren C. Zook Must everything in modern Dutch literature begin and end with Multatuli?1 So much has been written on Multatuli and his work, and so many different things have been attributed to his influence, that his presence in modern Dutch literary history nearly overwhelms both his contemporaries and those who have followed after. Only a decade or so after his death, Multatuli’s novel on Dutch colonial rule in the Netherlands Indies, Max Havelaar, had become nearly required reading and something like a badge of identification for both radical and mainstream political groups in the Netherlands.2 Gerard Brom, writing in 1931 about the influence of the Indies on Dutch culture, could only wax poetic about Multatuli and his work: “so great was the influence of Max Havelaar for life in the Indies, and so great was its significance for Dutch culture,” that the book’s presence had become “a fact that no writer could hope to avoid.”3 Even Queen Wilhelmina (r. 1898–1948) found inspiration in the writings of Multatuli when she began to entertain the idea of writing the story of her own life as part of the moral and material rebuilding of the Netherlands in the post- war years.4 Other writers speak of Multatuli as the “true Prometheus” of Dutch literature, the observance of whose literary “cult” is nearly a matter of “religious duty” for Dutch literati.5 Multatuli’s influence has indeed been immense, both in Dutch literature and in the literature of empire, but one wonders at times if the stories of the life and work of Multatuli had perhaps taken on a life of their own and become a MLN 121 (2006): 1169–1189 © 2007 by The Johns Hopkins University Press 1170 DARREN C.
    [Show full text]