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Elias Canetti, nobel-prize winner for literature in 1981,left at note to Herman Broach in Broach's 50 th anniversary of his birthday, encouraging his friend not to fear Elias and his senior colleagues too much. What he needs to do is write. "Age will not let you go , says Elias."short, Elias wants his friend to continue his creative work, and age should not matter. All writers , no matter how great they are, can never transcend their age. If one assumes that it can be done, then he certainly does not exist or perhaps still lives in the classical Greek period. Good writers, to him, are those who are sensitive toward their surroundings and their age. "You will not be a Dichter if you are still in doubt of becoming a Dichter. We have given up so much to machines, allowing it to make prophecies, that prediction has lost its values,insofat as we submit too much to the dictum of such non-living thing, we wll never have control upon events." (Centti, 1979:158). Reading and disccusing a series of Indonesian-Malay short stories by Umar Kayam, Budi darma, Seno Gumira Ajidarma, Keris Mas, Shahnon Ahmad and Anwar Ridhwan in creative writing course at Akademi Pengajian Melayu Universiti Malaya, in addition to basic courses in the theory of short story writing, Elias Canetti's tenets become one of my references. Senstiivity, which engages all the five senses ,also involves writer's imagination in shaping the plot, characterization, conflict, and in giving life to setting, nature,as well as combining tradition and modernity. How about the elements of suspense and resolution that writers are in favor of what about the element os surprise? these are some of the features examined by those wannabe writers.In order to be able to give life to their stories, they are asked to talk to their senior counterparts and find out the creative process that takes place in the writing of creating short stories. They are also asked to read their favorite shorts stories in the classroom.Also, they are assigned to write three short stories as part of the the requirements of their practicum and a term paper. for their positive developments, i believe that the reference should include literary text by Nusantara's writer's, examined through comparative perspectives, in universities in Indonesia,Malaya,Brunei Darussalam and Singapore,where Malay or Indonesian is used as the language of instruction, in addition to literary works from overseas. |
