Contemporary Indonesian Language Poetry from West Java: National Literature, Regional Manifestations

This book maps aspects of developments in contemporary Indonesian language poetry in West Java. While there have been studies undertaken of the development of modern Indonesian literature, relatively few have focussed on the regional setting of the modern Indonesian literature story. Those that have taken account of regional developments have tended to examine literature in the regional languages themselves, such as Javanese, Sundanese and Balinese. Following research over the years 2002-2006, Australian author Ian Campbell shows how contemporary poets in West Java have considered their local environmental settings and developed creative literary responses that cross boundaries into the realms of mystery and the mystical, of allusion or hard-edged realism. They succeed in engaging our attention in our common search for the universals in human existence as expressed through literary endeavours. A feature of this book is the large number of English language translations of work by prominent contemporary poets from West Java. A national literature, in its regional manifestations, explained in English, with Indonesian language original and source material.