Some Thoughts About Genre in Old Javanese Literature

Peter John Worsley

doi:10.37014/jumantara.v12i2.1148

Authors

Peter John Worsley Indonesian Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37014/jumantara.v12i2.1148

Keywords:

Genre, Narrative, Epic Kakawin, Chronicle, Praise Poem, Ritual

Abstract

Robson in 1983 and 1988 in his reconsideration of the poetics of kakawin epics and Javanese philology drew readers' attention to the importance of genre for the history of ancient Javanese literature. Aoyama in his study of the kakawin Sutasoma in 1992, making judicious use of Hans Jauss's concept of "horizon of expectation", offered the first systematic discussion of the genre of Old Javanese literary works. The present essay offers a commentary on the terms which mpu Monaguna and mpu Prapanca, authors of the thirteenth century epic kakawin Sumanasantaka and the fourteenth century Desawarnana, themselves, employ to refer to the generic characteristics of their poems. Mpu Monaguna referred to his epic poem as a narrative work (katha), written in a prakrt, Old Javanese, and rendered in the poetic form of a kakawin and finally as a ritual act intended to enable the poet to achieve apotheosis with his tutelary deity and his poem to be the means of transforming the world, in particular to ensure the wellbeing of the readers, listeners, copyists and those who possessed copies of his poetic work. Mpu Prapanca described his Desawarnana differently. Also written in Old Javanese and in the poetic form of a kakawin - he refers to his work variously as a narrative work (katha), a chronicle (sakakala or sakabda), a praise poem (kastawan) and also as a ritual act designed to enable the author in an ecstatic state of rapture (alango), and filled with the power and omniscience of his tutelary deity, to ensure the continued prosperity of the realm of Majapahit and to secure the rule of his king Rajasanagara. The essay considers each of these literary categories.

Author Biography

Peter John Worsley, Indonesian Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney

Peter Worsley is a graduate of the University of Sydney and the University of Leiden. Formerly Professor of Indonesian and Malayan Studies at the University of Sydney, he is now Professor Emeritus attached to the Department of Indonesian Studies in the School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. Between 2001 and 2013, he was Visiting Fellow and Research Associate in the Faculty of Asian Studies, Australian National University and in 2015 was Visiting Professor in the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

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