Antara Kampung Dan Kota : rural bias in the novels of Shahnon Ahmad

Abstract

This thesis examines the rural bias in the novels of Shahnon Ahmad, its characteristics and its presentation. It sees this bias as a product of an active process between Shahnon the man, the writer, his craft, and the literary conventions which surround him. The thesis attempts firstly to locate Shahnon and his novels within the various manifestations of rural bias which characterize the development of modern Malay literature. It then explores the particular form which the rural bias takes in Shahnon's novels, firstly from the perspective of the core of values and perceptions which inform his works. It argues that Shahnon's novels propose a perception of class division in Malay society between the elite (golongan atasan) and the masses (rakyat), the latter made up of the proletariat and, more importantly, the peasantry. It stresses that the novels demonstrate the presence of an inherent conflict between the two classes, and also that of an active movement towards a resolution of this conflict. In presenting this clash, the novels assert certain potentials and features as innate to the peasantry, just as there are characteristics peculiar to the elite. Moreover, they emphasize that those qualities inherent in the peasantry are instrumental in determining and directing the course of the conflict, including its final outcome.

The rural bias is explored also from the perspective of the intrinsic structure of the works. The thesis examines the use of the various elements of the craft of fiction in the novels. It proposes the presence of a pattern of conflict in the kampung (village) novels, and its corresponding muting or, ln some cases, effacement in the kota (city) ones. It suggests that the utilization and elaboration of this pattern of conflict underlies the presumed success and failure of the kampung and kota novels respectively.