Tesis : Christina Dewi Tri Murwani - Maspaul.com

ABSTRACT
MAX HAVELAAR AND ANTICOLONIAL IMAGE
A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS
Max Havelaar is a literary work by Multatuli, pseduonym E.E. Douwes
Dekker. This novel which used the three narrator is mentioned as a novel with a
anticolonial image. In other hand, this novel never suggest to stop the gouverment
of colonial Dutch in Ducth-Hindia (now is Indonesia). This reseach aims at
revealing the relation about colonialism’s vieuws with the its innovation of
narrative technique in this novel.
The first analysis has appied to fokalization of MH. This way is chosen
because MH presented the debate about colonialism in Ducth-Hindia through
the opinions and vieuws of the focalizers. MH uniquely used three focalizers .
The uniqueness is shown by Stern as a narrator-fokalizer in the Lebak Episode
although he is a character. This way gives the impression that Stern is in a neutral
position. He takes the middle-position between the two other characterfocalizers.
Because he is a character in this novel, so his focalization is not
neutral. Stern invites the reader to support the attitude of Multatuli. Whereby the
readers are confronted to make a choice betwen the war of anticolonial or
procolonial interests and to support either one of the two character-fokalizers :
Multatuli or Droogstoppel.
From the result of focalization the orientalism theory has been applied .
This novel used Multatuli and Stern as opposing figures against the forced labour ,
and Droogstoppel as a figure who supported forced labour and the coffe trade.
MH strove for the labourers to get proper wages so the issue about the procedures
of cultuur-stelsel received a special place in MH. Anticolonial traits are shown
by rejection of the low wages, oppression, robbery, injustice, mistreating, and
discrimination. On the contrary MH is a colonial discourse because it gave to
support to the Dutch colonial government in Dutch-Hindia . This novel is
influenced by the colonial hegemony to the competition of industrial products
from colonized countries of Europe in the 19 th century. That is why liberation in
MH is restricted to the liberation of the labour class from capitalists and a
liberation of people (low-classes) from tyrants . This novel does not discuss
political liberation.
Despite to the ambivalence of this novel, MH was a novel which shown the
literary work can to say about ideologi uniquely , implicit and imaginative.
Key Words: Max Havelaar- focalization –anticolonial- liberation of classes
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