How is literature taught in Indonesia? This was the first idea, in creating my guiding research question, that felt like it could work for me. However, it is limiting to make the topic be solely about literature or fiction. My next brainstorm brought me to my Freshmen English class, where we study Greek Mythology, Oedipus the King and Daniel Wallace’s Big Fish, which is a modern mythology. I thought about those stores in each society. There is a universal quality that brings us together, and there is a richness that makes each society’s stories wholly their own.
We all tell stories. Every society has its origin stories, and the lines between fiction and nonfiction can be blurry. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is fiction, but its central character is named Tim O’Brien. In his vignette “On the Rainy River,” he tells the story of the summer he received his draft notice to Vietnam. He worked in a factory spraying the carcasses of pigs with a hose, watching the blood go down the drain. One day, he jumps in his car and drives toward Canada and spends the day with an old man, who takes him fishing in his boat in the middle of a body of water over the line into Canada. He thinks of jumping but sees his family on the shore, ashamed. He also sees his future children and Abraham Lincoln.
Is this true? No. O’Brien said in an interview that he spent most of that summer playing golf and kept to himself. He felt alienated. He felt alone. That would make for a boring story, and would not truly capture the essence of what it feels like to have a draft notice in your hand. O’Brien expressed that he felt like a coward for going to Vietnam. The symbol is real, more real that the literal truth.
I always loved the idea that literature or “made up stories” tell more truth than some forms of nonfiction. I find the best nonfiction, on the other hand, captures the elements of fiction in terms of prose, structure, style and purpose.
My Guiding Question: What stories constitute the heart of Indonesia? How do these stories comprise the heritage of the country? How are these works taught to the youth of Indonesia? What values are universal, and can be seen in the stories of the United States of America? What stories constitute that richness that Indonesia special?
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