Suwarsih Djojopuspito (born April 20, 1912 in

Buitenzorg Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

died August 24, 1977 in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

), in pre-1940 spelling Soewarsih Djojopoespito, was an

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

author, regarded as one of the most important Indonesian

feminist writers Feminist literature is fiction, nonfiction, drama, or poetry, which supports the feminist goals of defining, establishing, and defending equal civil, political, economic, and social rights for women. It often identifies women's roles as unequal ...

, publishing from the 1940s to the 1970s. Among her most well-known works are the semi-autobiographical novel ''Buiten het gareel'' (1940) and the short story collection ''Empat Serangkai'' (1954). She was among the vanguard of early feminist authors in Indonesia that preceded the New Order, and was one of the first female writers (along with

Sariamin Ismail Sariamin Ismail (31 July 1909 – 15 December 1995) was the first female Indonesian novelist to be published in the Dutch East Indies. A teacher by trade, by the 1930s she had begun writing in newspapers; she published her first novel, '' Ka ...

Fatimah Hasan Delais Fatimah Hasan Delais (1915-1953), also known by the pen name Hamidah, was an Indonesian novelist and poet. Her novel ''Kehilangan mestika'' (Indonesian: Loss of the jewel), 1935, was among the first by a female author to be published by Balai Pusta ...

, and Saadah Alim) to be published by the state publishing house

Balai Pustaka Balai Pustaka (; also spelled Balai Poestaka, both meaning "Bureau of Literature") is the state-owned publisher of Indonesia and publisher of major pieces of Indonesian literature such as ''Salah Asuhan'', ''Sitti Nurbaya'' and '' Layar Terkem ...

Biography

Early life

Suwarsih was born in Cibatok,

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

on April 20, 1912. Her father, Raden Bagoes Noersaid Djojosapoetro was a merchant, and her mother Hatidjah was from a Muslim

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

family. Her father was apparently a gifted storyteller and also believed in equality for his female children, which is why he made a strong effort to give them a good education. He enrolled his daughters in the Kartini School as well as the MULO school in

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

from which she graduated in 1930. She was one of only two Javanese students out of thirty students in her cohort. Soewarni Pringgodigdo en Soewarsih Djojopoespito circa 1925

Soewarni Pringgodigdo en Soewarsih Djojopoespito circa 1925

During her time at the teacher school she also became involved in the Indonesian nationalist movement and its corresponding educational projects. Her sister Suwarni was involved in a "wild school" in

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

which did not accept government funding, but which attempted to give a European-style education to young nationalist students. After graduating from the teaching school Suwarsih herself started to teach at one of those nationalist schools in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

. She met her husband, Soegondo Djojopoespito, working in such a school and they were married in 1932. They continued to teach at various schools around Java throughout the 1930s, in

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

, and Batavia.

Writing career

During the late 1930s, while still working as a schoolteacher, she published essays in Dutch supporting progressive causes such as the abolition of

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

. It was during this time that she started writing semi-autobiographical novels ''Marjanah'' and ''Buiten het gareel'' (Dutch: out of line, or literally "out of the harness"). This was one of the few novels written in Dutch by an Indonesian. ''Buiten het gareel'' describes the life of Indonesian teachers in "wild schools", their dedication to

Sukarno Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967. Sukarno was the leader of ...

's nationalist movement and their struggles with poverty and exclusion. She had first written a similar autobiographical novel in

Sundanese Sundanese may refer to: * Sundanese people * Sundanese language * Sundanese script Standard Sundanese script (''Aksara Sunda Baku'', ) is a writing system which is used by the Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script (' ...

, and attempted to get it printed through the government printing house,

. However, it was rejected as inappropriate due to its nationalist themes, and also possibly due to problems with the writing style being too complex. She discussed the matter with literary critic E. du Perron, who suggested she rewrite it or rework it into a new

Dutch language Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-Europea ...

novel, and gave her feedback on the manuscript. It was published in that form in 1940, and again in a second edition in 1946. That second edition, with a foreword by du Perron, got more attention, and was widely reviewed in the Dutch literary press. During this time she also regularly contributed to the political literary magazine . After Indonesian independence,

continued to exist in a new form that was no longer hostile to nationalist narratives. Therefore, Suwarsih was able to start publishing with them; first ''Marjanah'', which she had written in

in the 1930s, was published by them in 1959 and an

Indonesian language Indonesian ( ) is the official language, official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standard language, standardized variety (linguistics), variety of Malay language, Malay, an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that has be ...

translation of the Dutch text of ''Buiten het gareel'' under the title ''Manusia Bebas'' ('free people') in 1975. She also wrote a number of short stories in Indonesian during the period immediately after independence, some of which were published in

Star Weekly The ''Star Weekly'' magazine was a Canadian periodical published from 1910 until 1973. The publication was read widely in rural Canada where delivery of daily newspapers was infrequent. History Formation The newspaper was founded as the ''Toronto ...

and other magazines. Her final novel ''Maryati'' was apparently submitted in 1976 but only published posthumously in 1982 by ''Pustaka Jaya''. This novel was also largely autobiographical, and described the experiences of an adolescent Dutch educated Indonesian in Bogor in 1928. Suwarsih died on August 24, 1977. She was buried at the Taman Wijayabrata Tamansiswa Cemetery in

Selected works

* ''Buiten het gareel'' (De Haan Uitgevery,

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, 1940) * ''Tudjuh tjeritera pendek'' (Pustaka Rakjat,

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

, 1951) * ''Empat serangkai, Kumpulan tjerita pendek'' (Pustaka Rakyat, Jakarta, 1954) * ''Riwayat hidup Nabi Muhammad s.a.w.'' (Bulan Bintang, Jakarta, 1956) * ''Marjanah'' (

, Jakarta 1959) published in

, this was the original autobiographical manuscript which had been rejected by Balai Pustaka during the Dutch era. * ''Siluman Karangkobar'' (Pembangunan, Jakarta, 1963) * ''Hati wanita'' (Pembangunan, Jakarta, 1964) * ''Manusia bebas'' (Indonesian translation of ''Buiten het gareel'') (Djambatan, Jakarta, 1975) * ''Maryati'' (Pustaka Jaya, Jakarta, 1982)

References

External links

1946 edition of Buiten het gareel
from the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren.
List of Suwarsih Djojopuspito works
in

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the OCL ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suwarsih Djojopuspito 20th-century Indonesian women writers 1912 births 1977 deaths Sundanese people People from Bogor Indonesian feminists Indonesian people of Chinese descent