Abstract

This paper presents an exploration of the republishing of traditional stories or folktales, most of which are traditionally oral, into printed form. This republishing activity has resulted in some changes in the stories, including the narrative’s structure as well as writers’ interpretation of the stories. As such, this paper also explains other domains that are also potentially affected by this activity. The narrative of the stories, the profile of the audience and reader, and the use of different media, particularly in the area of contemporary publishing and writing, development in Indonesia, comprise these domains. Furthermore, this paper investigates the republication of folktales, by publishing houses, in correlation with the creation of the reading public of such published literary works in West Sumatra. In such cases, the republished folktales have been changed to suit the book’s form, and resulted to alterations from their original version. Some writers in modern literary works have also adopted and explored these traditional stories based on the tales’ popularity to gain more readers of the printed versions. Publishing houses, at the same time, play an important role in this print literary production. The discussion also suggests that the republishing of traditional literature has significantly contributed to the shaping of folktales’ audience and reader’s profile.


Keywords

adaptation, printed story, traditional literature, transformation, West Sumatra

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Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University

The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.

International Board of Editors

Jan Baetens
Professor
Faculty of Arts
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium)

Joel David
Professor of Cultural Studies
Inha University (South Korea)

Michael Denning
Professor of American Studies and English
Department of English
Yale University (US)

Faruk
Faculty of Cultural Sciences
Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia)

Regenia Gagnier
Professor of English
University of Exeter (UK)

Leela Gandhi
John Hawkes Professor of the Humanities and English
Brown University (US)

Inderpal Grewal
Professor of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies
Professor of South Asian Studies, Ethnicity, Race and Migration Studies
Yale University (US)

Peter Horn
Professor Emeritus and Honorary Lifetime Fellow
University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Honorary Professor and Research Associate in German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

Anette Horn
Professor of German Studies
University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

David Lloyd
Distinguished Professor of English
University of California, Riverside (US)

Bienvenido Lumbera
National Artist for Literature
Professor Emeritus
University of the Philippines

Rajeev S. Patke
Director of the Division of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
Yale NUS College (Singapore)

Vicente L. Rafael
Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professor of History
University of Washington (US)

Vaidehi Ramanathan
Department of Linguistics
University of California, Davis (US)

Temario Rivera
Professorial Lecturer
Department of Political Science
University of the Philippines

E. San Juan, Jr.
Philippines Studies Center (US)

Neferti X.M. Tadiar
Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies
Barnard College (US)
Director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
Columbia University (US)

Antony Tatlow
Honorary Professor of Drama
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)