Brian Russell Roberts is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University and the author of
Keith Foulcher is Honorary Associate in the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney and the coeditor of
Brian Russell Roberts is Associate Professor of English at Brigham Young University and the author of
Keith Foulcher is Honorary Associate in the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney and the coeditor of
Richard Wright’s “The Artist and His Problems” (1955)
-
Published:March 2016
Just before he left Indonesia, Wright delivered a lecture at the Balai Budaja in Jakarta that was later published in Indonesian translation in the newspaper Indonesia Raya. The Indonesian-language version of the lecture appears to be a more polished, sometimes redacted version of a set of typewritten notes, now held by Yale University’s Beinecke Library, that Wright made in preparation for a lecture in Indonesia. Neither version has previously been published in English. The text presented here draws on both the Indonesian-language version and the sections of Wright’s notes that are omitted from it; possible reasons for the omissions are addressed in the commentary. The lecture provides insight into the East-West thematic characteristic of Wright’s other lectures of this period; it also illustrates his response to debates taking place in the Indonesian literary world at this time that he had encountered in discussions with his Indonesian hosts.
Advertisement
