The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions

This article explores the ambiguities and contradictions of a prose narrative depicting a war in Indonesia. Generally known among the Makassarese as Sinrilikna Kappalak Tallumbatua or The Three Ships, the text used in the analysis is its 1993 published version in both Makassarese and Bahasa Indonesi...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Ivie Carbon Esteban
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2010
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/1/Sari_28%281%29_2010_6_Ivie_%28Final%29.pdf

id	ukm-2437
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-24372016-12-14T06:31:36Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/ The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions Ivie Carbon Esteban, This article explores the ambiguities and contradictions of a prose narrative depicting a war in Indonesia. Generally known among the Makassarese as Sinrilikna Kappalak Tallumbatua or The Three Ships, the text used in the analysis is its 1993 published version in both Makassarese and Bahasa Indonesia. For the Makassarese, the Sinrilikna Kappalak Tallumbatua (SKT) is their version of the Makassar War (1666-1669) launched by Gowa against the Vereegnigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). This claim presupposes that there is another text and that the Makassarese have the right to insist their own version of the war. I argue that the SKT is not a historical text of the Makassar War, but a literary artifact of narrative fragments about the kingdom of Gowa and its 16th ruler, Sultan Hasanuddin. These fragments are products of selective memory because tradition dictates what is worth recollecting from the past and historical imagination shapes how greatness and heroism are deconstructed to preserve unity among peoples who come from the same lineage of “white blood”. Because the past is so remote, the narrator or composer of the SKT uses fragmentary recollection as a device in reconstructing the events and characters associated with the kingdom of Gowa and the Makassar War. The narrative of such recollection results in ambiguities and contradictions when “new” knowledge intervenes through contemporarization and historical allusion Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2010 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/1/Sari_28%281%29_2010_6_Ivie_%28Final%29.pdf Ivie Carbon Esteban, (2010) The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions. SARI: Jurnal Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, 28 (1). pp. 129-149. ISSN 0127-2721 http://www.ukm.my/sari/index.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	This article explores the ambiguities and contradictions of a prose narrative depicting a war in Indonesia. Generally known among the Makassarese as Sinrilikna Kappalak Tallumbatua or The Three Ships, the text used in the analysis is its 1993 published version in both Makassarese and Bahasa Indonesia. For the Makassarese, the Sinrilikna Kappalak Tallumbatua (SKT) is their version of the Makassar War (1666-1669) launched by Gowa against the Vereegnigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). This claim presupposes that there is another text and that the Makassarese have the right to insist their own version of the war. I argue that the SKT is not a historical text of the Makassar War, but a literary artifact of narrative fragments about the kingdom of Gowa and its 16th ruler, Sultan Hasanuddin. These fragments are products of selective memory because tradition dictates what is worth recollecting from the past and historical imagination shapes how greatness and heroism are deconstructed to preserve unity among peoples who come from the same lineage of “white blood”. Because the past is so remote, the narrator or composer of the SKT uses fragmentary recollection as a device in reconstructing the events and characters associated with the kingdom of Gowa and the Makassar War. The narrative of such recollection results in ambiguities and contradictions when “new” knowledge intervenes through contemporarization and historical allusion
format	Article
author	Ivie Carbon Esteban,
spellingShingle	Ivie Carbon Esteban, The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
author_facet	Ivie Carbon Esteban,
author_sort	Ivie Carbon Esteban,
title	The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
title_short	The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
title_full	The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
title_fullStr	The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
title_full_unstemmed	The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
title_sort	narrative of war in makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions
publisher	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2010
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2437/1/Sari_28%281%29_2010_6_Ivie_%28Final%29.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:36:04Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:36:04Z
_version_	1777405279227346944

The narrative of war in Makassar: its ambiguities and contradictions

Similar Items