Oral literature Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Oral literature is a social phenomenon. It grows and develops in the past and present societies. In the past, when the community was still in primary orality, oral literature must have colored all aspects of people’s lives. Because, in such a society, oral literature had blended with other socio-cultural activities. At the same time literary activities also constituted as activities of playing, having fun, or learning for children; puzzling, joking, complaining, expressing love and jealousy among teenagers; medical treatment, forest clearing for farming, expelling evil creatures who bother little children, proposing to marry a girl, selling and buying, and so on for the elderly.
Currently, oral literary activities are limited to certain activities. Pantun in the middle of Malay society still colors walimatul urusy or marriage events, although on that occasion, the pantuns are not spontaneously created but have been prepared in advance on a sheet of paper. The ensangan is still sung among the members of relatives in Sekadau, even though only the elderly listen to it. Kana is still being
performed in the middle of the Kapuas Dayak community in Melawi and its surrounding areas. Syair gulung or roll verses are still composed and read by young people in Ketapang and Kayung Utara. The various rhyme competitions, poetry reading, speaking, or folklore writing among young people organized by various institutions, should be then appreciated as an effort to preserve oral literature.
Oral literature is considered to contain relevant social, cultural values and local wisdom still to current development.
This book contains a collection of writings regarding oral literature in West Kalimantan, specifically relating to character and identity. Almost all of the writings in the book are “old works”, some of which have been presented in several seminar forums, that are quite a pity to be ignored. I consider these writings are still relevant to read, at least for undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in studying oral literature in West Kalimantan. While studying modern literary theories such as Postcolonialism, Postmodernism, Ecocriticism, Feminism, Literary Cartographies, Adaptation Theory, Intermedial Arts, Intermedial Theater, Posthumanism, Spatiality, etc., they need to come down to earth to see oral-literary life in Kalimantan West; expressions of local residents who have contributed
to building and shaping the cultural mosaic of West Kalimantan in particular and Indonesia in general.
The oldest writing is «Oral Tradition (s) and Identity of West Kalimantan Society». This 11-year-old paper was originally written for Workshop on Ethnic Minorities in
Southeast Asia, ATMA, Bangi, Malaysia, in 2003. After that, it was corrected and then published in the Sari, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Journal, Vol. 27 No. 1, 2008.
The next is ,”Borneo Island’s Traditional Shipping Technology: A Trace of West Kalimantan Community’s Oral Tradition”. This article was co-written by Dedy Ari Aspar and, it was once presented at the International Seminar on Nusantara Oral Literary Tradition in Wakatobi on 1-3 December 2008, organized by the Oral Traditions Association (ATL) carrying the theme of “Oral Tradition as Cultural Strength to Build Civilization. Then it was followed by “The Charms and Aesthetics of Malay Pantun from West Kalimantan, Indonesia.” This 10-year-old article was
published in the South Korean RISS Journal, Vol. 18 No. 1, 2009. The “Oral Literature, Local Wisdom and Sustainable Development” is the manuscript of an inauguration
speech for a professor of literature at Tanjungpura University was read out on May 11, 2009; all this time, the text of this speech has been circulated in a limited environment, namely among close friends. Next, there are four papers that talk about characters. First, “Malay Courtesy in West Kalimantan’s Rhyme” was presented at the Seminar on International Poetry of the Universiti Sains Malaysia (2010). Second, is “The Role of Malay Language in Character Building of a Nation.” This paper was originally presented at the National Seminar on “Nation Character Building” in Pontianak (2012), was published in the Journal of Jentera Vol. 3, No. 2 (2014). Third, is “Oral Literature, Soap Opera, and Character Formation.” This paper was originally presented in the International Seminar Oresentation to celebrate the 70 years of Prof. Dr. Siti Chamamah Soeratno (2015), which was later published in the book of Jejak Sastra dan Budaya (Literary and Cultural Traces) edited by Aprinus Salam, Henri Chambert-Loir, and M. Haji Salleh (2015). Fourth, is “Indonesian
Oral Literature: National Identity, National Character, and
Creative Economy Paper.” This paper was presented at the
International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, 8th-9th October 2019, UPM, Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia.
The eight articles contained in this book are certainly unable to describe the phenomenon of oral literature in West Kalimantan as a whole. The treasures of oral literature in this region are so rich that other efforts are still required to spread information about them. Oral literature enthusiasts and researchers have great opportunities and challenges to gather oral literature—be it of Malay or Dayak—
in the eastern regions of West Kalimantan like Kapuas Hulu, Melawi, Sintang, and Sekadau; or, in the southern regions, like Ketapang and Sukadana. Nevertheless,
the eight articles referred to are expected to provide an initial description of oral literature and the identity of the people of West Kalimantan. This book could be published because of the encouragement and assistance from variousparties. Encouragement came from my students who had requested that my writings, which had been published in various scientific forums, could be collected and published
in one book for them to read. For a person like me who has never had a good discipline to collect and store my writings it would have been very difficult to meet their requirement. In reality, it has taken a long time to «unload there unload here»(gather thousand of pieces to make a complete one) so that this and the other manuscripts could be later published. For this reason, on this good opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to those who have assisted, Mr. Agus Syahrani, Mr. Dedy Ari Asfar, Mr. Gusti Iwan Saputra, and others that I cannot mention one by one here. Hopefully, they would be rewarded by God the Almighty.