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Indonesian literature, is a term grouping various genres of South-East Asian literature. The term ''Indonesian'' has overlapping meanings reflecting the complex geographic and political history of the region.

Indonesian Literature can refer to literature produced in the Indonesian archipelago. It is also used to refer more broadly to literature produced in areas with common language roots based on the Malay language (of which Indonesian is one scion). This would extend the reach to the Malay Archipelago (including Indonesia, but also other nations with a common language such as Malaysia and Brunei, as well as population within other nations such as the Malay people living in Singapore.

There are also works written in and about Indonesia in unrelated languages. There are several languages and several distinct but related literary traditions within the geographical boundaries of the modern nation of Indonesia. For example the island of Java has its own Javanese pre-national cultural and literary history. There are also Sundanese, Balinese, and Batak or Madurese traditions. Indonesia also has a colonial history of Dutch, British and Japanese occupation, as well as a history of Islamic influence that brought its own texts, linguistic and literary influences. There is also an ''oral literature'' tradition in the area.

The phrase Indonesian literature is used in this article to refer to Indonesian as written in the nation of Indonesia.

Blurred distinctions

The languages spoken (and part of them written) in the Indonesian Archipelago number over a thousand, and for that reason alone it is impracticable to survey their entire literary production in one article. Since the thought of a national Indonesian language only struck root as recently as the 1920s, this means that emphasis in the present article is put on the twentieth century.

At the same time, such a choice leaves a number of distinctions open. Major factors which make for a blurring of distinctions are:

Overview

During its early history, Indonesia was the centre of trade among sailors and traders from China, India, Europe and the Middle East. Indonesia was then a colony of the Netherlands (ca. 1600—1942) and Japan (1942-45). Its literary tradition was influenced by these cultures, mainly those of India, Persia, China and, more recently, Western Europe. However, unique Indonesian characteristics cause it to be considered as a separate path and tradition.

Chronologically Indonesian literature may be divided into several periods:

There is considerable overlapping between these periods, and the usual designation according to ''generations'' (''angkatan'') should not allow us to lose sight of the fact that these are ''movements'' rather than ''chronological periods''. For instance, older Malay literature was being written until well into the twentieth century. Likewise, the ''Pujangga Baru'' Generation was active even after the Generation of 1950 had entered the literary scene.

Traditional literature: ''Pujangga Lama''

Early Indonesian literature originates in Malay literature, and the influence of these roots was felt until well into the twentieth century. The literature produced by the ''Pujangga lama'' (literally ''the old poets'') was mainly written before the 20th century, but after the coming of Islam. Before that time, however, there must have existed a lively oral tradition.

Genres

In written poetry and prose, a number of traditional forms dominate, mainly:—

Works

Some of these works are:

1870—1942: ''Sastra Melayu Lama''

The literature of this period was produced from the year 1870 until 1942. The works from this period were predominantly popular among the people in Sumatra (i.e. the regions of Langkat, Tapanuli, Padang, etc.), the Chinese and the Indo-Europeans. The first works were dominated by syair, hikayat and translations of western novels. These are:

Angkatan ''Balai Pustaka''

Unifying forces

Until the twentieth century, ethnic and linguistic diversity was dominant in the vast archipelago, and as a result, no national literature existed. Literature in Malay rubbed shoulders with works in other languages of the region, from Batak in the West through Sundanes, Javanese, Balinese, to Moluccan in the East. It is true that Malay was used as the ''lingua franca'' of the colony, and indeed, far beyond its borders, but it could not be regarded as a national language.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, changes became visible. National consciousness emerged among educated Indonesians especially. At the same time, the Dutch colonisers temporarily veered to a point of view which allowed for the education and unification of the Indonesian peoples to self-reliance and maturity, as it was perceived. Indonesian independence, however, was not contemplated by the Dutch. A third factor was the emergence of newspapers, which at the beginning of the century began to appear in Chinese and subsequently in Malay.

The Bureau for Popular Literature

Education, means of communication, national awareness: all these factors favoured the emergence of a comprehensive Indonesian literature. The Dutch, however, wished to channel all these forces, nipping any political subversiveness in the bud while at the same time instructing and educating Indonesians, in a way the government saw fit. For those reasons, an official Bureau (or: Commission) for Popular Literature was instituted under the name ''Balai Pustaka'', which became some sort of government-supervised publisher. Besides preventing criticism of the colonial government, Balai Pustaka blocked all work that might be conducive to any sort of religious controversy, and anything ''pornographic'' was avoided: even a novel featuring divorce had to be published elsewhere.

At the same time, school libraries were founded and were supplied by the new publisher. Works in Dutch as well as translations of world literature were brought out, but a burgeoning indigenous literature was also stimulated. From 1920 to 1950 ''Balai Pustaka'' published many works in high Malay (as opposed to everyday ''street Malay''), but also in Javanese and Sundanese, and occasionally also in Balinese, Batak or Madurese.

The first Indonesian novel

During this period, whose heyday was in the 1920s, Indonesian literature came to be dominated by fiction (both short stories and novels), and Western-style drama and poetry, which gradually replaced the earlier ''syair'', ''gurindam'', ''pantun'' and ''hikayat''. Merari Siregar's ''Azab dan Sengsara'' was the very first modern novel appearing in Indonesian, constituting a break with the Malay ''romance'' tradition. While not completely successful, in that it rather schematically deals in black-and-white oppositions, and directly addresses the reader, subverting its realism, this may still be regarded as the first treatment of contemporaneous problems (i.e., the issue of forced marriage) in the realist tradition.

Authors and works of the ''Balai Pustaka'' Generation