SHAHNON AHMAD: MAlAY AUTHOR*

Harrv Aveling (halleling@holmail.cOmJ

Monash University. Australia

Abstract

Shah non Ahmad's recent autobiographical volume, Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif (2008), covers many topics in its 748 pages. Interestingly, the word "Malay" is not to be found in its index. Yet Shahnon is often constructed by critics, especially non-Malaysian critics, as the quintessentially "Malay author". The paper will study "insider" (emic) and "outsider" (etic) views of how Shahnon is perceived as "Malay" by various critics and how his "Malayness" is encoded in other, different ways in his own work.

Keywords: emic, etic, Malay author, Shahnon Ahmad, Malayness.

Introduction

Sasterawan Negara Dato' Professor Emeritus Haji Shahnon Ahmad (b. 1933, Sik, Kedah) has been a towering presence in Malay literature for over forty years. His first short story, "Bingung", appeared in Majafah Guru on 24 May 1956; his first novel, Rentong, was published in 1965, almost a decade later. He has been much admired, at home and abroad, and, at various times, much reviled as well, especially after the

• This paper was originally presented to the workshop on "Race and Nation. Family and Economy", sponsored by the Asia Research Institute and Department of Malay Studies, National University of Singapore, 20 - 21 January 2009.

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publication of his political satire, Shit (1999). His views on Islam and, in particular its relationship to Malay literature (Shah non, 1981), have also been extremely controversial (see especially Kassim Ahmad and Shahnon Ahmad, 1987), although they arguably mark a significant stage in the development of Malay literature. His works move, as the title of Ungku Maimunah's book puts it, Antara Kampung dan Kota (1998), between the Malay rural countryside and the contemporary city, from the narrow limits of family and rice-growing to the broader concerns of race and nation.

In this paper, I am interested in making a preliminary comparison between Shahnon's views of Malay society, himself and his work, as presented in his recent diverse collection of essays, Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif(2008), and how literary critics have characterised those topics on the basis of his various short stories and novels. In order to do this, I will particularly rely on the distinction developed by Kenneth Pike (1954/1971) and Marvin Harris (1979) between "emic" and "etic" (insider and outsider) categories. Pike defines these terms as follows:

It proves convenient - though partially arbitrary - to describe behavior from two different standpoints, which lead to results which shade into one another. The etic viewpoint studies behavior as from outside of a particular system, and as an essential initial approach to an alien system. The emic viewpoint results from studying behavior as from inside the system. (Pike, 1971 :37)

Harris provides slightly different definitions of these terms, arguing that an outsider may in time be able to see what the insider sees, and that the objective insider may also, by virtue of this quality, become an outsider to his/her own community:

Emic operations have as their hallmark the elevation of the native informant to the status of ultimate judge of the adequacy of the observer's descriptions and analyses. The test of the adequacy of emic analyses is their ability to generate statements the native accepts as real, meaningful, or appropriate. In carrying out research in the emic mode, the observer attempts to acquire a knowledge of the categories and rules one must know in order to think and act as a native ....

Etic operations have as their hallmark the elevation of observers to the status of ultimate judges of the categories and concepts used in descriptions and analyses. The test of the adequacy of etic accounts is simply their ability to generate SCientifically productive theories about the causes of sociocultural differences and similarities. Rather than employ concepts that are necessarily real, meaningful, and

appropriate from the native point of view, the observer is free to use alien categories and rules derived from the data language of science. Frequently, etic operations involve the measurement and juxtaposition of activities and events that native informants may find inappropriate or meaningless. (Harris, 1979:32)

Let me admit from the outset that I have some hesitations in using these two categories, being potentially aware, as Roger Keesing has suggested: "none of the cognitive anthropologists whose work I have been reading in the last ten years use those terms any more ... [The concept] lives on [only] in the periphery ... I just don't think emic and etic is a relevant distinction any more" (cited in Headland, Pike and Harris, 1990:23). Nevertheless, I also understand that many other contemporary social scientists do still find the distinctions of "insider" and "outsider" relevant to their own concerns (see, for example, Miller and Glassner, 1997) and hope that the perspective the terms offer may be useful in our present discussions.

Non-Malay Literary Criticism of Shah non Ahmad

Although literary criticism has a different approach to language and culture from linguistics and anthropology, the need for the objective description and analysis of literary texts, as texts and in wider contexts, is generally recognized as a priority by most literary scholars. In Pike's and Harris's uses of the terms, the criticism of Shahnon's fiction by Malays and non-Malays alike is an etic, scientific, knowledge seeking, process. Malay critics may, of course, bring certain emic insights which are not immediately available to outsiders as part of this process. In this section of the paper, I will briefly consider the construction of Shahnon's major themes made by three major non-Malay critics, Professors A. Teeuw, A.H. Johns and Edwin Thumboo.

Shah non's work seems to have attracted little critical attention until the appearance of his two novels Rentong and Terdedah in 1965, despite the steady publication of short stories in the early 1960s, and their collection into two anthologies, Anjing-anjing (1964) and Oebu Merah (1965) (see the list "Apa Orang Kata" in Shah non 2006:235 - 36). Chronologically, the earliest paper in the critical anthology Tanggapan: Pembicaraan Karya-karya Shahnon Ahmad (1986) is a study of Terdedah by Yahaya Ismail (first published in Berita Minggu, 14 November 1965); the second is a study of Terdedah and Rentong by the visiting Dutch scholar A. Teeuw: "Dua Novelet Karangan Shahnon Ahmad" (1966).

Teeuw's article was written in Indonesian/Malay and first published in Dewan Bahasa, March 1966 (reprinted in Safian et at. 1986:32 - 40 and Hamzah and Zeti 2007:32 - 42). The use of the Malay language

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indicates that he was speaking to a Malay audience but Teeuw consciously positioned himself as an etic commentator: "an outsider ... a foreigner who is fully interested in the Malay world and culture" (sebagai orang /uar ... orang asing, yang berminat penuh terhadap dunia dan kebudayaan Me/ayu, Safian et at. 1986:36). Teeuw found that there was little in Terdedah which might be considered "Malay" (sedikit sahaja yang bersifat Me/ayu, 36), apart from the author's social criticism (kritik masyarakat Me/ayu, 36). The novel is strongly indebted to western techniques and ideas, in as far as it is reliant on interior monologue and deeply influenced by an outdated Freudianism (35-36). As a consequence, Teeuw therefore judged Terdedah to be of little interest to him as a scholar of Malay society (dismissing it, in fact, as offensively pornographic).

Rentong, on the other hand, provided an opportunity to understand a specific Malay community (untuk berkena//angsung dengan orang kampung Banggu/ Derdap, Pekan Sik di Kedah, 36). Teeuw used two strategies in his search as an outsider to understand the rural world of Shahnon and his characters. The first was to draw on his knowledge of the Indonesian "New Generation" (Angkatan Terbaru) of the 1950s, who deliberately sought to return Indonesian culture to its regional roots, as a way of providing a parallel path into locating Shahnon's use of rural themes. The second was the attempt to identify imaginatively with the Malay perspective of his readers. Teeuw praised Shah non's powerful use of a rich, tough regional language (Bahasa ini keras dan kena, kuat kuasa, kaya pula dengan kata-kata /oghat Kedah yang banyak sekali terdapat di da/amnya, 39), because of what it showed of the Malay character - "the people of Kedah, who think and feel in that language" (bahasa ini berkenaan /angsung dengan manusia Kedah, manusia kampung yang berfikir dan berasa da/am bahasa itu dan yang dilambangkan pula me/a/ui bahasa itu. Manusia tegang keras da/am dunia yang tegang keras pula, 39).

Like Terdedah, Rentong also used the interior monologue technique, but in such a way that it was able to bring the reader into the way of thinking that is characteristic of Kedah (dikenakan dengan sanggup agar memasukkan pembaca ke da/am cara fikir dan cara rasa manusia ini, 39 -40). Teeuw was thus able to recommend this book to Malay readers for its use of authentic Malay materials in a reasonably modern form (nove/et Rentong sudah tentu per/u diberi perhatian o/eh masyarakat Me/ayu sebagai contoh penggunaan bahan-bahan yang betu/ Me/ayu da/am bentuk yang agak moden jua, 38). Teeuw, we may conclude, is a generous etic observer of Malay language and literature, who is an emic observer with regard to western culture, and at the same time keen to describe the emic insights of his insider informants for primarily emic readers.

After these two short works, Shahnon quickly established himself as a prolific novelist. Ranjau Sepanjang Ja/an followed in 1966, Menteri and Prates in 1967, and Perdana in 1969. The presence of a significant body of work led to the second major "outsider" analysis of Shahnon's work, A.H. Johns' paper "Man in a Merciless Universe: The Work of Shahnon Ahmad" (1974). The paper is a critical survey of Shah non's early work and was originally presented to the 28th International Congress of Orientalists, held in Canberra in January 1971, a clearly etic setting. Shah non was a participant at this conference (Shahnon, 2006:203), and the article was immediately published in Malay as "Karya-karya Shahnon Ahmad: Manusia dalam Alam Tanpa Belas Kasihan" in the March 1971 edition of Dewan Sastera (reprinted in Safian Hussain et a/. 1986:1-20).

Johns' conclusion to this paper defined some of the parameters within which he himself worked as a critic. These parameters emphasised the role of the author's personality in shaping the path in which his/her work is to follow. "In approaching literary works," Johns wrote, "in attempting to understand their structure, it is useful to make the effort to understand the mysterious chemistry of an author's personality, and to discover the way in which it has reacted with its environment" (1974:73). As Johns had previously insisted elsewhere: "(t)he type of literature to which we attach the unsatisfactory term 'modern' is a form of entertainment" (and not of instruction, as we find in 'traditional' literature), which is characterized by "the author expressing a standpoint of his own, giving an individual critique and analysis of life around him .... There cannot be for [the traditional author] any of that agonizing sense of doubt, that questioning and criticism of the bases of social life, and the analysis and presentation of the predicaments of individuals out of which Western literature is made" (1963/1979:31).

"Man in a Merciless Universe" argued that the personality of the mature writer is shaped by "a set of basic values and styles which inform his work", and that at a certain pOint in time these "coalesce, set the path he is to follow, and determine the field in which he is to achieve significant work" (1974:73).The "ultimate question" is "one of identity" (73) and language forms a significant part of that identity: "Language itself is a strange alchemy," Johns wrote:

Part of the effectiveness of a language resides in the range of imaginative writing it sustains, and the efficacy with which this writing enriches both the minds and sensibilities of its native speakers and those for whom it must become a language of cultural intercourse and educational development. Indeed, what a person is, what it is within his capacity to become, depend on the resources and scope of the language through which his sense of the world, values and

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personality are formed. And once this formation has occurred, it is almost impossible for experience gained in later life to modify it. By the same token then, every extension to the compass of a language is an extension of intellectual range and fecundity of the people to whom it is native. (74)

The essay began with a description of the historical context which allowed for development in 1946 of "a Malay elite with a clearly defined national as opposed to group consciousness" (1974:59) and, related to this, the emergence of the Singapore Malay group of authors, the "generation of '50", who were for the first time able "to get to grips with the difficulties involved in understanding and communicating the intimacies of the individual consciousness" (61). Then the paper developed through a consideration of Shahnon's understanding of himself "as an artist, and all that this implies" (61, modified) as revealed in the various works of fiction. The first collection of short stories, Anjing-anjing, revealed "a certain vigour of style, social concern and a touch of melodrama ... reflection, and perhaps hindsight, shows that a very distinctive literary talent is at work" (62). The second, Oebu Merah, showed "a confidence, a zest and enjoyment of writing as a craft", and "[e]qually important, the narrative line no longer even begins with lip service to a social issue, although it may be implicit in the plot; rather the story is the vesture, the image one might say, of a comment on life and human nature" (63).

Rentong brings these qualities together, adding as well a far more complex presentation of character than in the earlier stories. "Somehow", Johns noted, "we are taken into the thoughts and emotions of the principal characters ... ". Johns' "somehow" is, of course, Teeuw's "interior monologue", but Johns was far more explicit than Teeuw in his assessment of the novel, insisting:

While no one could claim that the analysis of character is profound, these are real people. The description of the rural background is even more effective; culturally there is not a false touch, and as for setting, the landscape is vibrant with implicit life, whether under the radiance of the sun or shrouded by the darkness of a moonless night. (65)

The "moral judgment on the human condition" (66) which Johns found to be symbolized in the ending of Rentong is the basis for Shahnon's next novel, Ranjau Sepanjang Ja/an. Johns noted the sociological aspects of the novel - Malay poverty, rural indebtedness, the unequal distribution of resources within Malay society, etc., (66), but these were not what mattered in a final consideration of the work. Rather, the novel is shaped by "a tight formal structure, and a cunning, if unconscious, selection of archetypes and overtones" (67): time, structure, human existence and the struggle against the elements for survival, which

Johns suggested could, in this context, "rightly be called the dharma of the rice-field" (67). This moral viewpoint was spelled out in the following crucial statement:

Such is the vision of (Ranjau Sepanjang Ja/an): Man lives in a merciless universe; created from the dust of the earth, his fate is to wrestle with that dust in order to survive. The odds against which he must struggle make death and insanity his lot. But he may never surrender. (69)

We shall not follow Johns in his discussion of Terdedah, Menteri and Prates (both 1967), and Perdana (1969), all of which indicate "a shift in Shah non's interest from village life to the issues of political responsibility at the national level" (71), and about which, in fact, Johns had little to say. Rather, let us return to Johns' final assessment of Shahnon's work and understanding of his sense of identity (74). In his work and in his life, Johns claims, Shah non has successfully positioned himself as a modern, self-aware individual, in touch with traditional society and its archetypes. His characters embody aspects of Shahnon's own interests - "personal morality, rural modernization and political responsibility" - but beyond this, he has been able "to view man from various aspects: as a creature oppressed by loneliness, as a creature overwhelmed by a sense of inadequacy and bewilderment at the birth of a new world - and in so doing to give a cosmic vision of the human condition" (75).

In "Man in a Merciless Universe", Johns constructed a psychological and social identity for Shahnon which was strongly reliant on a Romantic understanding of the artist as a sensitive moral spokesman for a wider society. The morality proposed, although referred to by the Hindu­Buddhist term dharma, was a universal morality, which constructed the world as a malicious place of arbitrary but constant suffering.

For other readers, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan was based on a different morality, encapsulated in the profoundly Muslim message to be found in the first two sentences and regularly repeated thereafter: "Mati hidup dan susah senang dipegang oleh Tuhan. Dipegang oleh Allah Azzawajalla" (Shahnon Ahmad, 1966: 1) - in Adibah Amin's translation: "Life and death, dearth and plenty, are in the hands of God. In the hands of Allah the Almighty" (Shahnon, 1972: 1). Edwin Thumboo's article "Shah non Ahmad's No Harvest but a Thorn" (1979: Malay translation in Safian et al. 1986:91 - 118) began by citing these words, in English, and insisted that their "emphatic brevity outlines the macrocosm governing the interlocking spiritual, emotional, and physical environment inhabited by Lahuma and his family" (89).

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Thumboo linked the theology of the novel to the shaping of character, and then both to "every aspect of daily peasant life" (94). In accepting that the central concerns of No Harvest but a Thorn were religious and not moral or sociological, Thumboo provided a central link for understanding the characters' motivations and actions:

The psychology of the chief characters is made acceptable by functioning in terms that accord with the spiritual and social systems they inhabit. The faith in Allah is not abstract or metaphysical merely. It manifests as an active capacity to accept a life marked more by tragedy - and the potential for tragedy - than the promise of joy. There is a remarkable consistency in how Lahuma, Jeha and Sanah respond to events, asserting a life-force in the face of immense odds. (92)

Thumboo was not a scholar of Malay Studies but Professor of English at the University of Singapore, working from Adibah Amin's translation (Shahnon, 1972). His only references were to Adibah's "Introduction" and "Man in a Merciless Universe". Unlike Teeuw's and Johns' readings, developed within a framework of Malay Studies, Thumboo's interpretation was shaped by his reading of English Literature and other Literatures in English. We can see this different disciplinary influence on the second page of his article, when Thumboo writes: 'The theology of this macrocosm touches every aspect of life by dictating the way the individual sees himself in relation to those he loves, domestic responsibilities, work, and environment" (90). "Theologies" and "macrocosms" provided excellent entries into "The Elizabethan World Picture" for scholars in English Departments during the 1960s (Tillyard, 1963); that world is very far from Shahnon's rural Muslim world. Further, Thumboo's parallels were not to Indonesian or Malay writing but to the canonical masterpieces of Commonwealth Literature as it was taught in English Departments at that time: Chinua Achebe's (Things Fall Apart, 91), Ngugi Wa Thiong'o's (A Grain of Wheat) and Kamala Markandaya's (Nectar in a Sieve, 92). This is a clear example of how etic descriptions can draw on emic material but exist for their own sake and need not depend on emic validation at all.

Two Malay Literary Critics, Insiders and Outsiders Both

Language is not, in itself, a decisive feature of insider status. Although Teeuw's article was written in Indonesian/Malay, the translations of the articles by Johns and Thumboo were not reprinted in Hamzah Hamdani and Zeti Aktar Jaffar's later critical anthology, Shahnon Ahmad

dalam Esei dan Kritikan (2007). The next two critics whom I wish to discuss, Ungku Maimunah Mohd Tahir (1998) and Mohd Yusof Hasan (1989), both Malays, from Johor and Kedah respectively, have written significant book-length studies of Shahnon's works - in English. 1

The two studies are informed by a common methodology, which seeks to view Shah non's writing in the light of its social context rather than the abstract moral or spiritual relationship of the individual to the wider universe. Perhaps not coincidentally, this methodology characterizes Teeuw's essay as well.

Although Yusof's study is entitled Novels of the Troubled Years: A Study of Shahnon Ahmad's Novels 1965-1978, the historical events he describes range more broadly: from the independence of Malaya in 1957, the end of the Emergency in 1960, the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the efforts of the Malay community to create more opportunities for itself, the struggle for the recognition of Malay as the National Language, the racial riots of May 1969, to the economic problems which led to the 1975 peasant demonstrations in rural Kedah. Yusof describes these "troubled years" as "a time of shaping a political, economic, social and cultural Malay consciousness", and argues that Shah non's "own life and works mirror the developments in Malay society from Independence to the present" (xi).

Yusof lists and summarises each of Shahnon's many short stories and ten novels in meticulous detail. At regular intervals, he pauses from his consideration of "themes and characters ... language and literary style" to present the background to these works in broad historical terms as a way of conceptualizing Shahnon's "reaction to and reflection on the development of Malay society" (231). The overall narrative which emerges reveals Shahnon's disillusionment with the moral failures of the nationalist Malay elite and his sympathy for the suffering of the rural masses (xx).

Yusof finds a common theme for Shahnon's earliest short stories, 1956 -1960, which is only minimally related to sex; they are focused on "the abuse of power" (6). The stories criticize "the lifestyles, appearances, and the hypocrisies of what might be termed the 'fat cats' of society" and reinforce "a sense of commitment to the country and the Malay race" (11). Rentong, on the other hand, is politically more positive: it presents a picture of a wise village leader who is able to restore harmony to a disturbed situation through his "patience and selflessness" (48). Ranjau Sepanjang Ja/an is less about the conflict of man with man and more

1 Both books are based on doctoral theses completed in Australia at the same time, 1980-1984. Both candidates received their degrees from the Australian National University, although Maimunah's work was undertaken under special arrangements at the Flinders University of South Australia.

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about the conflict between man and nature, with the associated need to trust completely in God, but it too has an underlying sub-theme of the exploitation of poor Malays, not only at the hands of Chinese but also at those of rich Malays (64). Terdedah shares in the criticism of hereditary titled groups which arose in the wider society during the early 1960s and a common disappointment with the abuse of power by "some politicians and [political] leaders" (66 - 7), contrary to what had been expected after Independence. It develops around the sexual problems, misdemeanors and temptations of its characters, but, at a deeper level, it also offers "an acid comment on the standard of social and political morality in Malay society" (67, see also 71).

With the novels of the second half of the 1960s, a change takes place: "character and social aspects, though still important, are secondary to the political dimension" (95). Menteri and Perdana, were characterized by a continued awareness of the ineffectualness of Malay leadership at both the state and national levels and, in particular, their inability to improve the community's economic position in a multiracial state (xvii). Yusof discerns a new distinction in Shah non's perception of the elite between devoted but frustrated party (UMNO) politicians and "the treachery of government officers and civil servants" (107). If the party had more control over bureaucrats, there would be a greater focus on the wellbeing of Malays and less talk of Malaysia which only benefits the other races (108). Perdana dealt historically with the rise and development of Malay nationalism, and gave special attention to the ideologies of the various thinly disguised characters (124). These were, respectively, gradual nationalism (Ketua Ahmad, perhaps based on Senu Abdul Rahman or Mohd Khir Johari, 124 - 27), a conciliatoriness towards other races which tended to betray the Malay community (Lokman, based on Dato' Onn, 128 - 29), a pro-Malay and manipulatively pro-Islamic attitude (Pak Nik, Dr Burhanuddin Helmy, 129 - 31), and, finally, a commitment to Special Rights for Malays but also to multiracial harmony (Abdul Rahim, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, 131 - 33). Of the two novels, Menteri "is more consistent and subtle in its portrayal of Malay political issues in the period after attaining independence" (138); in particular, it "poses questions about the economic survival of Malays in their own country and with great frankness and courage reveals the racial tensions and prejudices within the Malaysian community at that time" (138).

Yusof's time frame enabled him to continue his study of Shah non's political and nationalist literary analysis of the Malay dilemma into the 1970s, which earlier critics had obviously not been able to do. He saw Shah non's period in Australia, 1968-1972, as an intermediate time, when Shah non "underwent a wide range of unsettling and disconcerting experiences" (140). Yusof mentions a significant range of works -Srengenge (1973); Sampah (1974); and the short stories, some of which

were eventually collected as Se/esai Sudah (1977) - and described the years 1974 and 1975 as a time of "renewed social commitment" (the title of chapter 6). Yusof baldly lists some of the reasons being advanced at this time to explain Malay rural poverty: "multinational investment, corruption among politicians and government officials, lack of rural development, inadequate rural education facilities and the absence of social justice" (185). However, Shah non's novels and short stories from this time were based on actual contemporary events: Kemelut (1977) on the industrial pollution of fishing waters south of Butterworth2

; Seluang Menodak Baung (1978) on the farmer and student demonstrations held in Baling, Kedah and at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang in 1974. Yusof concludes: "With these novels, Shahnon has returned to earlier themes and issues of social concerns, but his literary skills are now more mature. These two novels, especially, combine old themes of rural struggle, urban social problems, political issues, and human tension with the new social realities read about, seen and experienced by Shahnon Ahmad" (230). For Yusof, the depiction of the Malay community in Shah non's work is immediate and unproblematic.

Maimunah also saw Shahnon's work as reflecting a particular contextual reality. The task she set herself was more complex than that to which Yusof aspired. As she wrote:

It is a premise of this book that a study of Shahnon's works necessarily involves placing them within the context of the totality which gives them birth. The environment in which he was nurtured, the social reality which surrounded him and the literary climate with its attendant biases and allegiances are forces which act upon him and upon which he acts. A product of this totality, his works take on a distinct character, based on his choice and selection of material, the perspective he gives it and the consciousness which underpins it. Recurrent themes and preoccupations, presented from different angles for purposes of clarification and reinforcement, become evident in his works. This, in turn, reflects Shahnon's own commitments, idealism, indeed, his personal vision and uncompromising pursuit of this vision. (87)

More complex, but also narrower. It was Maimunah's argument that: "Shah non utilizes and modifies on the basis of his own experience the perceptions and world-view which characterize modern Malay literary culture. It is this process of dynamic interaction with the tradition of Malay literature which produces the framework of ideas that structures his novels" (10 -11). She in fact made little effort to describe the major

2 This matter was described in detail in a pamphlet published by the Consumers' Association of Penang, Pollution, Kuala Juru's Battle for Survival, 1976.

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political or social events which concern Yusof, although these were accepted as being the wider context for Malay literary history (10).

Section 1 of the book presented "A Brief Survey of Modern Malay Literary Culture", surveying in detail the growth of Malay Literature from the coming of British colonialism in the 1870s to the writers of the 1970s. 3

Maimunah discerned certain common themes running throughout the whole of modern Malay literature. From Abdullah Munshi on, authors have acted as social critics, articulating "their thoughts and perceptions of their surroundings" (35), most commonly "the values and mores closely associated with their rural background and education" (38). These values have associated rural life with "moral excellence, good conduct and positive values such as honesty and diligence", and the city as "a negation of both Malay culture and religion" (40). Maimunah suggests that there was also a class dimension to these views: 'The poor and oppressed were assigned positive qualities and virtues, while the elite and the rich were denied any good at all ... Malay leaders were callous, uncaring of their own people and guilty of betraying their own "race". The Western-educated bureaucrats ... were usually presented as irreligious, steeped in vice and obsessed with the pursuit of sensual gratification. Like their urban counterparts, the authority figures in the villages were similarly cast as hypocrites who used their own positions to further their own selfish ends" (51).

The rest of the book built on these foundations. Section 2 traced the preliminary formation of this "world-view" in Rentong and Terdedah, which is the "consolidated" in the future novels from Ranjau Sepanjang Ja/an to Kemelut, and "concretized" in Se/uang Menodak Baung. Section 3 discussed the "rural bias" of Shahnon's works ("a bias towards sympathy with the rural environment") and the ways in which literary critics have responded positively to the obvious dichotomy between "village and non-village" preoccupations in his work (234).4

Like Yusof's work, Maimunah's study found that the relation between text and context was immediate and unproblematic. Neither Yusof nor Maimunah engaged in primary historical research in their description of the wider context of Shah non's writing, although Maimunah's

3 This first section was published separately in 1987 as Modern Malay Literary Culture: A Historical Perspective. Research Notes and Discussion Paper. No. 62. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

4 This distinction is also made in Novels ofthe Troubled Years. Yusof suggests that the village represents traditional values, sound leadership and religious faith, while the town represents the modern aspects of society, in which "leadership is represented by administrators, members of parliament and ministers from the Malay middle and upper classes who pursue their own interests rather than those of the people they represent" (241 ).

presentation was far better grounded in secondary sources than is Yusof's. Neither presented a theoretically sophisticated explanation of the way in Shahnon's writing "mirrors" (Mohd Yusof Hasan, 1989:xi), or "articulates" (Maimunah, 1998:35), the reality by which it is created. The possibility that his views represent one particular perspective within the multiple positions provided by socially and geographically diverse Malay culture, was never considered. Both accepted that what matters in Shahnon's writing is his participation in, and articulation of, a wider, monolithic "Malay consciousness [which is] the determining factor within the historical events" (Maimunah, 1998: 171). Shahnon's fiction is a nonobjective, fully emic, presentation of Malay reality, they suggest, because what he writes is his own physical and mental reality. It is sufficient to assert this reflective process to understand his works.

Weltanschauung: Shahnon's Creative Journey

Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif is a massive collection of very diverse essays. The essays are mainly autobiographical and include literary reviews, spiritual reflections, and even a few outlines of the university courses Shahnon taught. The papers are divided into six sections: (I) Early village life, (II) Friends and works, (III) Grief and sorrow, (IV) Organisations, courses and literary activities, (V) Literature and foreign authors, (VI) Meaning, spirit and works, and (VII) Creativity.

The book's title indicates Shahnon's fondness for what many would consider "strange words" (including perhaps those from Kedah Malay). Several definitions of "weltanschauung" are provided. A minimal definition refers to "attitude and values" (sikap dan nilai, 245, 722, 725, 732, 733, 734). For the devout Muslim, such a perspective of reality necessarily considers the interaction of each entity with God, the world and other human beings (untuk menuju individualiti mukmin da/am perjalanan hendaklah senantiasa berlandaskan weltanschauung atau pandangan semesta tentang realiti mengikut perspektif Islam yang tentunya mencakupi keseluruhan tanggapan terhadap entiti dan interaksi Tuhan, a/am dan manusia, 478, 493).

Where is Shah non in all this? Everywhere, obviously. Not explicitly as a "Malay"; although the book is written in Malay, the word does not occur in the index at all and makes only an infrequent appearance, usually attached to the word "literature" (340 - 41, 381, 436). But he is there as himself - as an individual human being, a villager, author, friend, organizer, teacher, reader and writer, Muslim, and creative being. We may very briefly sketch the primary emic units in Shah non's self-reflection as follows.

The book begins with Shahnon the villager. When he reflects on the village of his birth, Kampung Banggul Oerdap, his first impressions are

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of nature: "rivers, hills, mountains, canals and ravines, winds and rains, fortresses of rock and floods, and long dry seasons" [sungai, bukit bakau, gunung-ganang, paritdan caruk, angin dan hujan (hutan?) be/antara dan kota raya batu bata dan kebanjiran, serta kemarau panjang, xv-xvi]. But this is the external reality. He continues: "I do not just see nature with all of its roughness and problems in physical terms. I am more interested in its fineness and its secrecy" (a/am dengan sega/a keserabutan dan kerunyamannya tidak kulihat dari fisika/nya sahaja. Aku /ebih berminat melihat keha/usan dan kerahasiaannya ... , xvi).

The first villagers he sees are his own parents. He several times describes the more violent aspects of his father's personality and his mother's gentleness. An example is to be found early in the book: "My father was born with various external characteristics such as a hot temper and a sense of sadism which it is sometimes impossible to imagine .... And my mother had a limitless patience, a sense of shyness and her own hardness" (8apaku /ahirda/am berbagai-bagai citra dengan beba/an dan sifat sadismenya yang kadang-kadang sukar dibayangkan ... Dan, ibu dengan kesabarannya yang tidak terkira itu, dengan sifat ma/unya dan sifat kerasnya, xvii).

The next persons described are two brothers who (as far as I know) are never mentioned in his works: Puteh ancf Dereh. The two brothers, orphans although blessed with a large extended family, lived in a small hut beside a clear flowing stream; they owned a number of tiny plots of land and two water-buffaloes. What he most admired about the brothers was: "the simplicity of their attitudes, the simplicity of their values and the way they acted under all circumstances ... they were in such harmony with the world around them that it was as if they and the world had one heart and one soul" (kesederhanaan sikap mereka, kesederhanaan ni/ai dan pembawaan mereka da/am serba sega/anya ... mereka begitu harmonis dengan a/am sekefifing, bagaikan a/am dan mereka itu sehati sejiwa, 50).

Despite this idealized image of the simple Malay farmer, at one with the surrounding world, it is precisely because he was not like Puteh and Dereh that he was able to become a writer: "Unfortunately, Puteh and Dereh's attitudes and bearing did not infiltrate into me and become an intimate part of my own nature. I was rich in conflict and disagreements and I feel that my creative journey would not have developed without the presence of conflict in my life" (Sayangnya, sikap dan pembawaan Puteh dan Dereh tidak menyerap masuk ke da/am diriku sehingga tersebati dengan jiwaku seterusnya. Aku menjadi kaya dengan konflik atau pertikaian dan aku rasakan perja/anan kreativitiku ini tidak akan dapat diperkembangkan andai pertikaian tidak wujud da/am hidupku, 53).

In Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan KreatifShahnon has much to say about his own creative processes, as one might expect, although little specific on his different works. Writing is a search to understand oneself: "to find one's own individuality, one's own self-meaning; both the meaning of the human circumstances one chooses and the way of offering those circumstances in certain artistic forms" (mencari individualiti diri, mencari makna diri; baik makna dalam pemilihan keperihalan manusia mahupun makna dalam gaya menghidangkan keperihalan manusia ini dalam bentuk-bentuk seni tertentu, 469), to find what he describes, in English, as "the individual self' (521). It requires the use of the intellect, and Shah non argues in a number of places that the writer should be as well-informed, in as many fields, as possible (584,597,613 -17).

When Shahnon describes himself as a person, he acknowledges and dismisses his body: "My body is like everyone else's: it begins small, grows bigger, shrinks, becomes knotted, wrinkled, and will finally decay" (Tubuh badanku ini sama dengan tubuh badan orang lain: kerdil, membesar, mengecut, renggeh, kedut dan akhirnya reput, ix). In a more theological mode (complete with Qur'anic references), he describes human nature, and presumably himself, as being: "hasty ... inconsiderate of the earth ... prone to quarrels and given to opposing the truth ... proud ... oblivious to the pleasures God gives ... unrighteous ... complaining ... egotistic ... And a thousand and one other features" (tergesa-gesa ... tidak mengenangi bumi ... membantah dan suka menentang kebenaran ... sombong ... mengingkari nikmat Allah ... za/im ... keluh-kesah ... egoistic ... Dan, seribu satu lagi, 552 - 53).

What interests him most are his own emotions. On the one hand, he is lonely and unpopular (begitu terpisah dari orang lain, terasa begitu asing dan tidak disukai orang, xvi, see also 65). On the other, he easily moved to anger, foolish acts and violence (radang, bengis, kurang ajar, pongah yang sukar dikawallagi, xi). He is especially impatient with idle chatter and "human foolishness which erodes humanity" (gelagat manusia yang sudah terhakis manusiawinya, xii).

His writing proceeds from these emotional qualities:

To this day, this restlessness and the pressure of [inner] conflict so imposes itself and constricts me that the words burst out in prose forms which are often rebellious and cruel, which form huge waves and great storms. I hurl my words out in words which are often utterly exposed and without meaning. And when I think about those words again I can feel how much tension they bear, as if my heart and chest are fields of conflict or battlefields. For the various armies I have created within myself. (Hingga kini pun kegelisahan, tekanan daripada konflik begitu terus

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mendesak dan menghimpit diriku ini sehingga tercetus/ah kata-kata da/am bentuk prosa-prosa yang sering bersifat pemberontakan dan keganasan, yang sering berge/ombang dan bertaufan besar. Aku /ontarkan sahaja kegelisahanku itu ke/uar me/a/ui kata-kata yang kadang-kadang tidak ber/apik /agi, tidak ber/apisan makna /agi. Dan, apabi/a kurenung kemba/i kata-kata itu, terasa benarpertentangannya da/am diriku ini bagaikan dada dan hatiku ini ia/ah medan perjuangan atau ge/anggang peperangan antara berbagai-bagai pasukan yang aku ciptakan da/am diriku ini, xi).

Shah non does not write from a tranquil contemplation of the universe or a deep mystical sense. He is well aware that in his own case:

Everything in the creative journey depends on mood or the inner atmosphere, because mood can shift the mind in any direction at all or shift one's values and attitudes to display any type of awareness which seems logical. But which is more solid and fierce if we compare logic and mood on this challenging journey? Logic depends on reason, is based on facts, but mood holds more tightly to feelings. In a creative journey like this one, feelings determine everything: both the choice of the original premises, their orchestration and their balancing, their external and internal opposition, their transitions, crises, climaxes, and their resolution.

(Sega/a-ga/anya bergantung kepada mood atau suasana hati da/am perja/anan kreativi ini karena mood bo/eh menggerakkan mentaliti untuk ke mana-mana sahaja atau menggerakkan ni/ai dan sikap untuk memper/ihatkan sebarang kewarasan yang /ogika sifatnya. Tetapi, apakah yang /ebih kenta/ dan garang ka/au dibandingkan /ogika dengan mood da/am perja/anan penuh cabaran ini? Logika ber/andaskan ak/iah, bertonggak reason, ber/andaskan fakta, tetapi mood /ebih berpegang kepada rasa. Da/am perja/anan kreatif yang seumpama ini, rasa menentukan sega/a: Baik da/am pemi/ihan premis asa/ mu/anya, orkestra atau keseimbangannya, pertentangan /uaran dan da/amannya, transisinya, krisisnya, klimaksnya atau reso/usinya, 700).

The problems which oppress him and drive his creativity by provoking these strong responses are all indeed social ones:

The poverty of the working class; the dangerous condition of national politics, and the quickly spreading social diseases - which often weigh heavily upon me, torture me, oppress my feelings, chain my thoughts and trap my creative powers. And in the situation of being weighed down, tortured, oppressed, enchained, and ensnared, my creative powers protest and automatically gather strength and prepare to rebel.

(Kedaifan rakyat bawahan, kegawatan politik tanah air, dan penyakit social yang cepat merebak - yang kerap benar mendesak, menyeksa diri, menekan perasaan, membelenggu fikiran, dan menjerat daya kreativiti. Dalam keadaan desakan, seksaan, tekanan, belenggu, dan jeratan inilah daya kreativiti memprotes dan dengan sendirinya bertenaga dan siap untuk memberontak, 377).

There is much more to Weltanschauung: Suatu Perjalanan Kreatif than I have room to discuss here, particularly Shah non's religiosity. Alongside the anger and violence, Shah non is also a person of prayer: "very diligent in drawing near to God through diligently listening to 'His voice', 'speaking' with Him, following His 'commands, accepting the 'life' He has set out for me, rejecting the 'life' He has forbidden, and ready to change whenever He convinces me that I should" (begitu rajin merapati diri dengan Allah melalui kerajinan mendengar "suara-Nya", "bercakap" dengan-Nya, mengikut "suruhan"-Nya, menerima 'hidup' yang ditetapkan­Nya, menolak 'hidup' yang ditegah-Nya dan sedia pula berubah apabila tiba keyakinan daripada-Nya, xiii). But I have said enough to show that the ernic self Shahnon describes is neither the stoic calm of the patient farmer, silent in the face of a merciless universe, nor the single voice of the Malay people, who are most compassionate and whole when living in traditional society and most disturbed when imprisoned in the city.

Conclusion

The etic Shahnon is a scholarly construct which helps us to talk about his literary works. The emic Shahnon is a very different person. How far the two match, how far they should match, is a question for further discussion. The last word, most appropriately, belongs to Shahnon. In the essay "Khalayak Teristimewa" (637 - 43), he writes of his special readers, literary critics and academics. One of the most important members of this tribe is Mohd Yusof Hasan (whom we have discussed above). We should hear this story first in Malay:

... kerana sebahagian besar perjalanannya, hanya diriku melalui karya-karyaku yang terlalu banyak dijenguknya, sehingga jengukan itu melarat kepada hal-hal yang terlalu rahsia, terlalu personal; malah kata orang secara berseloroh, Mohd Yusof Hasan ini mengenali Shah non lebih daripada Shah non mengenali diri Shahnon sendiri.

Pernah aku sanggah, secara berseloroh, pendapat orang ini dengan mengatakan kepada Mohd Yusof Hasan bahawa yang benar-benar mengenali Shahnon luar dalam, atas bawah, bawah sedar, separuh sedar, sedar tidak sedar, langsung tidak sedar; baik melalui teori Sigmund Freud atau teori Mana Sikana ialah isteri Shahnon Ahmad. Mohd Yusof Hasan tidak boleh isytiharkan dirinya sebagai tokoh

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berautoriti tentang Shah non. Mohd Yusof Hasan ketawa terkekeh­kekeh apabila mendengar selorohku. (640)

For the most part of his journey, Mohd Yusof Hasan has only studied me through my various works, so much so that his gaze has spread itself across some very secret matters, very personal matters; so much so that people have joked that Mohd Yusof Hasan knows Shah non better than Shah non knows himself.

I disagreed with this opinion once, in a joking way, telling him that the one who really knew Shah non inside and out, under and over, subconscious, semi-conscious, consciously unconscious, whether by way of the theories of Sigmund Freud or Mana Sikana the literary critic, was Shah non Ahmad's wife. Mohd Yusof Hasan had no right to register his claim to being an authority on Shahnon Ahmad. Mohd Yusof Hasan laughed mightily when he heard my joke.

The joke, one can't help feeling, is on us all.

References

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Hamzah Hamdani and Zeti Aktar Jaffar, 2007. Shahnon Ahmad dalam Esei dan Kritikan. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Harris, M.,1979. Cultural Materialism. New York: Random House.

Headland, T. N., K.L. Pike and M. Harris, 1990. Emics and Etics: The Insider/ Outsider Debate. Newbury Park California: Sage Publications.

Johns, A.H., 1974. "Man in a Merciless Universe: The Work of Shahnon Ahmad" in Search for Identity: Modern Literature and the Creative Arts in Asia, ed. A.R. Davis. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 59 - 75.

Johns, A.H., 1979. "Genesis of a Modern Literature". Cultural Options and the Role of Tradition. Canberra: Faculty of Asian Studies in association with the Australian National University Press, 30 - 64. Originally published in Indonesia, (ed.) R.T. McVey. New Haven: HRAF Press 1963, 410 - 54.

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