CHAPTER II The development of Indonesian literature from Bali Balinese have been part of the national literary endeavour throughout the twentieth century, but scholarly discussion of their contribution tends to be limited to acknowledging well-known names like Panji Tisna from the 1930s and Putu Wijaya from the 1970s. Panji Tisna, the fi rst author from Bali to be given recognition as a national fi gure in Indonesian literature, is included in the Angkatan Pujangga Baru or ‘New Writers Generation’. In the early 1930s, Balai Pustaka published two of his novels, which are still widely read and studied. Like many of the other early novels published by Balai Pustaka, Panji Tisna’s novels continue to be reprinted, reinforcing his reputation as a famous novelist from Bali on the national literary stage. Putu Wijaya started to gain national recognition in the 1970s, and since then has become one of Indonesia’s most prolifi c writers. His output includes novels, short stories, dramatic work and cultural essays, as well as writing and directing fi lms. He also founded his own theatre and directed plays there, and has been invited to perform and give theatre workshops in countries as varied as Japan, Greece and the United States. He has always been identifi ed as Balinese, even though he moved to Yogyakarta in the 1970s, and has lived in Jakarta since the late 1970s. Besides these two well-known writers, Bali has produced many other writers whose works and literary activities have played a signifi cant role in the development of Indonesian literature since the 1920s. They include poets, novelists and short-story writers who have appeared in both the local and national mass media. Some of them have received national recognition or won prestigious national literary awards. In addition, many of them have been invited to I Nyoman Darma Putra - 9789004253636 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:58:57AM via free access 28 A literary mirror attend international, national or regional literary activities held either in Indonesia or in other countries such as Malaysia, the Netherlands and France. There are also many Balinese writers who have remained unknown at the national level, but have nevertheless contributed to the large body of Indonesian literature from Bali. Bali is often selected as the venue for national or international literary festivals, which provide important chances for Balinese writers to participate and establish networks with writers from elsewhere and also reaffi rm Bali’s position in the life of national literature. The signifi cant impact made by Balinese writers on the long- term development of Indonesian literature has been more widely appreciated recently (Bachri 2000; Rampan 2000). In his introduction to a special Kompas-Bentara edition of poems from Bali (1 September 2000), the ‘president of Indonesian poetry’, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, noted that as well as in poetry, Balinese writers have also made an important contribution to the development of Indonesian literature in prose and other literary forms. Korrie Layun Rampan has included a number of young Balinese writers as part of Angkatan 2000 or the 2000 Generation of Indonesian literature, reminiscent of the inclusion of Panji Tisna in Angkatan Pujangga Baru. What follows is an overview of the progress of Indonesian literature in Bali from the 1920s to 2000, highlighting its distinctive features. This time span covers four broad periods: the colonial (1920s to 1945), national revolution (1945-1965), New Order (1965-1990s) and Reformation (1990s to the present) periods. Although these dates are approximate, as activities in some cases overlapped, the literature of each period displays particular characteristics that defi ne it. The signifi cant social and political currents that have infl uenced the writing of this literature in Bali in important ways also mark each period and are also discussed. Historical overview As indicated previously, Indonesian-language literature began in Bali in the 1920s through the medium of the periodicals Surya Kanta and Bali Adnjana. While modern literature in Malay or Indonesian I Nyoman Darma Putra - 9789004253636 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:58:57AM via free access The development of Indonesian literature from Bali 29 had been in existence elsewhere in the archipelago in the nineteenth century, in Bali there is no evidence to suggest the existence of any modern Indonesian literary works by Balinese writers before the 1920s. Publication in newspapers and magazines therefore started as, and remains, the main medium for literary production. Only a few works have appeared in books, and most of these had been published earlier as sastra koran. So there is no doubt that Indonesian literature originating from Bali should be considered sastra koran. Table 1 shows an almost unbroken series of signifi cant twentieth- century Balinese publications in which literary works appeared and illustrates how important newspapers and magazines were for Balinese authors. Table 1. Balinese publications since the 1920s Name Place Publisher Affi liation Year(s) Shanti Singaraja Shanti all four castes 1924-1925 Adnjana Bali Adnjana Singaraja IGP Tjakra upper caste 1925-1931 Tenaja Surya Kanta Singaraja Surya Kanta lower caste 1925-1928 Bhawanegara Singaraja Liefrinck-Van Dutch- 1931-1935 der Tuuk sponsored Foundation Djatajoe Singaraja Bali Darma unknown 1936-1941 Laksana Suara Denpasar Board unknown 1948 -1965 Indonesia* of Suara Indonesia Bhakti Singaraja Unknown unknown 1952-1954 Damai Denpasar Yayasan nationalist 1953-1955 Kebhaktian Pejuang Imbangan Denpasar Partai Sosialis socialist party 1954 - ? Indonesia I Nyoman Darma Putra - 9789004253636 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:58:57AM via free access 30 A literary mirror Name Place Publisher Affi liation Year(s) Harapan Singaraja unknown unknown 1958- ? Harian Bali Denpasar PKI communist 1964-1965 Dwipa party Mingguan Denpasar PKI communist 1964-1965 Fajar party Suluh Denpasar Gesuri nationalist 1965-1966 Indonesia* Foundation party (Bali edition) Suluh Denpasar Gesuri Nationalist 1966-1971 Marhaen* Foundation Party (Bali edition) Harian Denpasar Kodam armed forces 1966-1978 Angkatan Udayana Bersendjata** Bali Post* Denpasar PT Bali Bali independent 1971-present Post Nusa Denpasar Kodam armed forces 1978-1998 Tenggara** Udayana Cak Denpasar Yayasan Cak independent 1995-1997 Nusa / Nusa Denpasar Kodam armed Forces 1998- present Bali** Udayana * Suara Indonesia changed its name to Suluh Indonesia in 1965, to Suluh Marhaen in 1966, and to Bali Post in 1971. ** Harian Angkatan Bersendjata changed its name to Nusa Tenggara in 1978, to Nusa in 1998 and to Nusa Bali in 2004. The colonial period saw fi ve periodicals published in Bali by social organizations whose members were mainly educated Balinese, such as teachers and administrative offi cials in the Dutch bureaucracy. They included Shanti Adnjana (The voice of peace), Bali Adnjana (The voice of Bali), Surya Kanta (The beautiful sun) from the 1920s, and Bhawanegara (The expression of nationhood) and Djatajoe (The Messenger) from the 1930s. They all used the Malay or Indonesian I Nyoman Darma Putra - 9789004253636 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 07:58:57AM via free access The development of Indonesian literature from Bali 31 language, but occasionally included articles in Balinese or in Dutch. Among these periodicals, Surya Kanta and Djatajoe were the most prominent in promoting modern Indonesian literature in addition to traditional Balinese literature, while Bali Adnjana published only one Indonesian poem and no traditional Balinese literature at all. No archive of Shanti Adnjana is available, so it is impossible to know whether it contained any literary works, and Bhawanegara, published by the Dutch-sponsored Liefrinck-Van der Tuuk Foundation,1 showed no interest in modern Indonesian literature. Instead, its aim was to present to the general public traditional Balinese literary works and summaries of traditional texts in Indonesian as part of an effort to preserve traditional Balinese literature, which up until then was written on palm leaves. During the fi rst decade of the national revolution, the outlets for national literature from Bali were the daily newspapers Suara Indonesia (The voice of Indonesia) and Imbangan (Balance), the magazines Bhakti (Devotion) and Damai (Peace), and the weekly Harapan (Hope). During the early 1960s, two publications that also published literature appeared in Bali, the daily Bali Dwipa (Bali island) and the weekly Fajar (The sun). All of these publications had links to political organizations, in line with the Sukarno government’s dictates in the 1960s, so Balinese writers published their creative writing in these locally circulated publications. While Panji Tisna had published work in periodicals outside Bali in the early 1930s, regular opportunities to publish in national periodicals did not arrive until after independence. Some Balinese writers from the 1950s, such as Nyoman S. Pendit, Putu Shanty and Made Kirtya, began to publish their literary work outside Bali, mainly in Jakarta periodicals that included the weekly Siasat (Strategy) and the monthly Mimbar Indonesia (Indonesian forum), as 1 This foundation was named after two scholars, F.A. Liefrinck and H.N. van der Tuuk, who worked in Bali for the colonial government in the mid-nineteenth century. This foundation established a lontar library, Gedong Kirtya, in 1928 in North Bali. Indonesian summaries of texts from this library were published in Bhawanegara