
Sundanese Print Culture and Modernity in 19th Century West Java
Mikihiro Moriyama(Author)
Singapore University Press
Published on 30. April 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
304 pages
978-9971-69-322-0 (ISBN)
Description
Sundanese Print Culture and Modernity in 19th Century West Java traces the development of modern printed books written in Sundanese, the dominant language in West Java, Indonesia, and the mother tongue of about 30 million people. Starting with the 'discovery' of Sundanese by Europeans in the early 19th century, Mikihiro Moriyama follows the developments in the ensuing century when a small group of Dutch scholars and colonial officials reshaped the language and its literature over the next one hundred years. Schools taught Sundanese, and printed materials based on western concepts began to influence indigenous writing and oral tradition. The imposition of European standards of literary aesthetics shaped a modernity that rejected traditional knowledge in favour of rational and empirical paradigms. Interest in traditional poetry and its mythologies declined, and new forms of prose, including novels, captured the attention of the reading public. These materials promoted useful knowledge and morality, and encouraged deference and loyalty towards colonial authority. Early in the 20th century, the establishment of the Commissie voor de Inlandsche School- en Volkslectuur (Committee for Indigenous Schoolbooks and Popular Reading Books), a government-subsidised institution, provided the growing number of literate people in the Indies with 'good' and 'appropriate' reading materials. Its development marked the end of an era when Sundanese writing competed with Western-style schools and publications, and signalled the triumph of the new colonial modernity.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Singapore
Singapore
Publishing group
NUS Press
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
525 gr
ISBN-13
978-9971-69-322-0 (9789971693220)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mikihiro Moriyama is Professor of Indonesian Studies at Nanzan University, Japan. He has written several books on Sundanese language and literature, essays on contemporary Indonesian literature and Japanese translations. Besides teaching bahasa Indonesia, he is fluent in Sundanese, Dutch, and English.