Narration and Perspective in Pramoedyas Inem Essay -- Asia Narrative

Narration and Perspective in Pramoedyas InemTradition represents an integral component of ones cultural identity, and this is especially so in this rapidly changing world which we plump in, where the boundaries between different cultures are increasingly being blurred and distorted by the process of globalisation. While traditions do define the beliefs, practices and collective experiences of a people, the act existence of certain socio-cultural institutions in which discriminatory and repressive measures still persist cannot be condoned. It is this very dimension that Pramoedya addresses in his short story, Inem The narrators reminiscences of his childhood perform a serious social commentary and incisive social critique of various repressive traditional institutions in Indonesian society, such as the practice of child-brides (i.e. the oblige socialisation of children), as well as the intransigent nature of prevailing patriarchal attitudes towards women and subsequent treatment th ey receive in the authors socio-cultural milieu. The story achieves, albeit subtly, a tidy condemnation of these facets, which is presented artfully through a duality in the narration - a childs nave perspective and circumscribed knowledge to describe the course of events as they happened, alongside the mature, retrospective voice, which also provides a highly mimetic depiction of life in this society.It might be pertinent and helpful here to number 1 discuss the structure of the narrative itself, for there are several elements in the sequencing of the discourse that contribute in no small way to the overall force play of the narration/narrator. The narrative begins in media res (beginning in the midst of the action at a crucial junct... ...d in the narration. This is ultimately left to the sub-text, of what is left unsaid. It is quite an clear where the author stands on the issues the short story raises, and through the navet in the childrens perspective presented in the narra tors recollections, an intense and vivid resemblance to public in this very retrospection, and the narrative sequencing that remorselessly directs the story towards the concluding tragedy - a powerful and scathing, if not sober, social critique on the nature of tradition, adhering to reform social behaviour and resistance to change is shaped and conveyed.BibliographyChatman, Seymour. Narration Narrator and Narratee. Reading Narrative Fiction. New York Macmillan, 1993. 90-97.Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Inem. Contemporary Literature of Asia. Arthur Biddle et al (ed.) Blair Upper lodge River, NJ, 1996. 139-148.