Thousands Of English Literature Scripts Exhibited At Taman Ismail Marzuki

The manuscript featured in the HB Jassin's Sastra Documentation Center Travel Exhibition (PDS) titled "Relang-Alik to the Past" at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM), Jakarta, Sunday (3/9/2023). (Between/Aprilio Abdullah Akbar)

JAKARTA - The DKI Jakarta Library and Archives Service (Disputip) presented thousands of manuscripts of Indonesian writer maestros at the HB Jassin Literature Documentation Center (PDS) Travel Exhibition entitled Ulang-Alik to the Past which lasted until September 17, 2023 at Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) Jakarta.

The exhibition curator and literary archival activist Esha Tegar Putra said the exhibition concept was to determine HB Jassin's track record in documenting the history of literary development in Indonesia.

"We want to show Pak Jassin's process of documenting the collection of literature," said Esha when contacted by Antara, Jakarta, Sunday.

The collections exhibited, continued Esha, are a small part of the many documentation and archives in PDS HB Jassin.

Esha explained that in the process of curation, the selection of writers is carried out which is well known to the wider community.

At the exhibition site, the documentation collection displayed includes the initial manuscript of Pramoedya Ananta Toer's novel "In the Bekasi River Bank" which was sent to HB Jassin in the 1940s and several shorts as well as the script for the "Bumi Manusia" novel with the last corrections made on June 19, 1976.

The sheets look authentic with Pramoedya Ananta Toer's handwritten in black ink. There is also a manuscript by the poet Iwan Simatupang written in the daily notebook complete with a writing error.

In addition, this exhibition also displays a personal letter between HB Jassin and WS poet Rendra and writer Nh Dini.

All the manuscripts were placed on the glass chest table to protect against damage due to its fragile condition.

One of the visitors, Fredy, appreciated the holding of this exhibition because he was able to see the paintings of Indonesian writer maestros directly.

"The show is interesting, because there are many literary handwrittens that are rarely seen," said Fredy.

The total collection owned by PDS HB Jassin is 169 thousand literary documentation as of 2020.

"Most of this collection is in the form of clips," said the Public Relations Team of PDS HB Jassin, Adi Gumelar.