When Indonesian Literature Breaches Global Boundaries

Indonesian literature has a great chance to introduce itself to the international stage. One indicator of this is the increasing provision of and interest in Indonesian language studies abroad. Prof. Dr. Koh Young Hun, a South Korean Indonesianist professor, during a guest lecture at the Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga, cited the significant surge in interest in Indonesian language studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea, which has accepted more than two hundred students in recent years. This phenomenon shows that the exposure of Indonesian literature at the global level is increasingly opening up. Therefore, the state and society need to actively facilitate the dissemination of literary works so that they are accepted by foreign audiences, for example through the translation of literary works.

Global interest in a country cannot be separated from its cultural products. Lucien Goldmann stated that literature reflects a country through the behaviour of its people, social culture, values, and history. Literary works are diplomats for their respective countries because they represent the culture and society. South Korea has successfully proven this strategy through the adaptation of literature into other media, such as drama and pop music. This wave also expands cultural and economic reach.

Indonesia actually has a strong and authentic cultural foundation. There are many internationally recognised literary figures, such as Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, and Ahmad Tohari, who have achieved global recognition through the Nobel Asia from 121 nominations. The Nobel Asia is an international-level award for measuring literary works. This shows that the quality of Indonesian literature is not inferior to global standards. This quality needs to be maintained and improved through the creation of high-quality works.

However, to breach national boundaries, literary works need to address universal human values, such as freedom, justice, and human dignity. Indonesian literature needs the courage to create authentic works, primarily by maintaining local values and historical culture as a form of national identity. Directly, works can promote the country through these local characteristics. For example, Sutardji Calzoum Bachri’s experiments in pioneering a new genre in Indonesian literature. This idea created a history of Indonesian poetry because it ‘rebelled’ against uniform culture. The uniformity of meaning, where words function to create understanding, was dismantled by Sutardji so that words are no longer trapped in the colonisation of meaning. This idea opens up opportunities for Indonesian literature to develop creativity, even if not on a uniform path.

In printed form, literature can be internationalised through translated works. Without translation, literature will remain confined within language barriers. Translating literary works has significant advantages and obstacles. Translated works can introduce the local culture and values contained within to readers across countries. However, the obstacle lies in the depth of understanding of the language and text of the work, which is a determining factor for the quality of the work. A lack of understanding can leave a bad impression because the textuality of the original work becomes limited by the translator’s ability.

Common translation errors in morphological aspects lie in the coherence of the source text and writing errors. For example, in Korean, the pronunciation of the word ‘Indonesia’ is almost similar to the word ‘India’. A case occurred when the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer was understood to be from India due to a translation error. Therefore, the translator must first understand the chain of meaning-making processes, not only from the perspective of Indonesian culture but also the culture of the target country, so that both cultures are involved to support the reader’s understanding while maintaining the authenticity of the work.

In this process, diction and the creativity of word forms also need to be translated as they are to maintain the authenticity of the work. However, according to the experience of Prof. Dr. Koh Young Hun, certain meanings need to be noted simply so that foreign readers can understand without removing the reader’s right to build their own horizon of expectation. Through the perspective of diction and the creativity of word forms, the translator needs to maintain the original elements as much as possible, while still striving for acceptability for foreign readers. In this regard, the translator acts as a cultural mediator who encourages cultural exchange between countries, while maintaining the identity of the literary work as a reflection of local culture.