Transcript Max Havelaar A Foray into Colonial Criticism of the Netherlands in

Max Havelaar
A Foray into Colonial Criticism of the Netherlands in
Regard to the Dutch East Indies
Overview of Max Havelaar
This book is only the beginning……
(Multatuli pg 320)
•Novel set in modern day Indonesia as well as the
Netherlands
•Multiple narrators provide different world views
throughout the novel
•Written under a pseudonym Multatuli
He who has endured much
•Was written by an individual called Dekker and is a
biased highly autobiographical story
•Novel deals extensively with morality and how it relates
to economic reality
Overview Continued…
Batavus Droogstopple
•Narrow minded, hypocritical, Dutch Coffee Broker, who lives in
Holland with his wife and children.
•Decides to “write” a book about the coffee industry in Java,
based on Scarfman’s manuscripts.
•Owns Last & Co.
It’s a firm principal of mine not to meddle in things that don’t concern me
(Multatuli pg 29)
Overview Continued…
Ernest Stern
•Young German-born apprentice of Droogstopple
•Writes the parts of Droogstopple's novel that need to be
translated from German (or what Droogstopple deems
irrelevant)
•Tells the story of Max Havelaar
Rule of the Dutch East Indies
King of the Netherlands
Rule by Native Chiefs*
Governor General
(Assisted by a Council
Directors
(heads of
departments
Residents of Provinces
(Slymering)
Assistant Residents
(Havelaar)
Controlleurs, Inspectors,
other officers,
Supervisors… et cetera
Regent*
Max Havelaar
•Virtuous and idealistic at the financial expense of his
family
•Appointed Assistant Resident of Lebak in the province of
Bantam, Java.
•Shortly after his arrival he uncovers the blatant
exploitation of the people by the Regent
•Appeals to the Resident
•
•Appeals to the Governor General
•As a result, Havelaar is transferred but he steps down
I should do this
[even] without God
Almighty
(Multatuli pg105)
Dekker’s Style
•Use of colloquial language uncharacteristic for
time
•Multiple narrators provide multiple world views
•Each narrator has a strictly different voice
Dekker’s Style…
Last & CO
COFFEE BROKERS
17 Lauriergracht
Batavus Droogstopple:
•Foil for Havelaar
•Represents the ignorance of the Dutch populace
•Hypocritical, questionable morality
•Is
• the only narrator who interrupts his colleagues
•Forces the reader to question their own responsibility
for the Javanese reality
Full of love for truth and justice
Max Havelaar (Stern)
[Havelaar] frequently neglected his
nearest, most obvious duty, in order to
•Multatuli’s own experience
redress a wrong that lay higher,
further, or deeper, and that drew him
•Passionate morality
by the probable need for greater effort
in the struggle (Multatulti pg 89)
•Work in Translation
Saijah and Adinda: Lyrical Story
•Firsthand representation of
Javanese
•“Monotonous”
•Noble Savage
•Resistance
See how the butterfly flits hither
and thither.
His tiny wings gleam like a many
tinted flower.
His little heart loves the blossom of
the kenari:
Surely he is seeking his fragrant
beloved.
(Multatuli pg 271)
Dekker’s Style
Multatuli
Great and Powerful Oz
Focus on substance rather than style
I am no fly-rescuing poet, no half-baked dreamer, like the
downtrodden Havelaar, who did his duty with the courage of a
lion and now starves with the patience of a marmot in winter.
This book is only the beginning…
I shall wax in power and keenness of weapons, in porportion
as shall be necessary…
(Multatuli pg 320)
RELIGIOUS CRITIQUE
“Truth and common sense… that’s what I always say.
Naturally I make an exception for the Holy Scriptures” (Multatuli, pg 20)
• Satirical representation of holy figures of
authority.
Read the scriptures and
mark that Scarfman!
He left the ways of the
Lord; now he is poor…
He wrote unseemly
articles in the
Independence
(Multatuli pg 127)
•A link in the novel between economic wealth
and perceived moral goodness. Highly
satirical of the elite and upwardly mobile.
•The moral compass (Havelaar) does his
selfless work without invoking religion.
•Havelaar’s representation as a modern HeroSavior figure.
“It is decidedly not flattering for
Western Civilization that the
ambition to create great work has
seldom persisted long enough for the
work to be completed” (Multatuli 64)
Multatuli’s
Colonialism
•Class distinctions based primarily on ethnic distinctions and a person’s
connection with the motherland. Those born abroad are called “native” as are
many of the higher ranking Javenese.
Class distinctions remain important in Holland, but only in terms of relation to
titled royalty
The policy of forced farming of coffee and other highly lucrative crops decimate
the population
The Dutch take on patronizing roles and “treat the native officer who assists
him as his younger brother” (71)
Famine is often the outcome…. [which] makes Holland rich (Multatuli 74)
Reception of the Novel
Immediate
Poor sales, low impact for a few years
Afterwards, massive public readership
Holland abolishes practice of jdsklfjsdlfjs
Today
Max Havelaar society – conglomerate of aid groups with a
focus on fair trade.
http://www.maxhavelaarfrance.org/
Still widely read and considered important especially in the
Netherlands
Questions on Max Havelaar
Dekker was a member of the oppressive Dutch presence in Java. Yet despite this, his
novel spurred agricultural reforms which helped reduce the suffering of the Javanese.
How does this challenge the perception that only the oppressed can free themselves?
From the excerpt and the presentation, do you think that the novel was written
primarily as a self-glorifying vendetta against the Dutch elite, or to be provide a voice
for the suffering of the Javanese?
Women are rarely portrayed in the novel and when they do appear they are
subservient and obliging without any substance of their own, how does this interact
with the rest of the story?
The pen is mightier than the sword…..
Dekker’s novel brought the plight of the Javanese to the attention of the European
reader; however even after reforms were instated the Indonesian populace continued
to blame their Dutch conquerors for much of their lack of infrastructure and social
handicapping. Do novels have a role to play in wider social activism or are they only
useful to deal with very specific issues?
Literature Cited
Multatuli. Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts 1982.