{"id":27500,"date":"2007-03-02T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T10:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/?p=27500"},"modified":"2024-07-04T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-04T05:50:33","slug":"dewan-bahasa-dan-pustaka-profile-shahnon-ahmad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/articles\/2007\/03\/dewan-bahasa-dan-pustaka-profile-shahnon-ahmad\/","title":{"rendered":"Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Profile: Shahnon Ahmad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

“I have a bit of a split\npersonality,” says Shahnon Ahmad (January 13th<\/sup>, 1933; full\nname: Datuk Haji Shahnon bin Ahmad) in Amir Muhammad’s ‘Raising A Stink’\n(Asiaweek; May 7th<\/sup> 1999). “People look at me and see a pious\nman, but there’s a repressed side which comes out in my writing. That’s when I\ndon’t censor myself. I let it all out.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this same article, Amir calls\nShahnon Ahmad the ‘Malaysian literary lion’. Literary lion or vagrant National\nLaureate — depending on your sensibilities on scatological discourse — our\nsubject needs little introduction. A formidable talent and piercing intellect\nwho is not afraid to say it as he sees it, Shahnon earned his reputation\nthrough works like the novels Ranjau\nSepanjang Jalan<\/em> and Rentong<\/em>,\nseveral Literary Prizes — and, most notoriously, the political satire Shit<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Teacher and Scholar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahnon Ahmad was born in Banggul\nDerdap, Sik, Kedah. After graduating from Alor Setar’s Maktab Sultan Abdul\nHamid, he began teaching at Kuala Terengganu’s Grammar English School in 1954.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1955 to 1956 Shahnon served as\nan army officer stationed in Port Dickson, but returned to teaching, holding\nposts at several schools until 1967. In 1968, Shahnon moved to Canberra,\nAustralia and served as a Research Officer at the Australian National\nUniversity (ANU). Here, he took the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree,\nwhich he received in 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to Malaysia, Shahnon\nlectured at the Maktab Perguruan Sultan Idris, in Tanjong Malim, before being\noffered a lecturer’s position at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 1974. It\nwas at USM that he earned a bachelor’s in Literature, in 1975. Shahnon was\nelected Dean to the USM Humanities Department in 1979, elected Professor of\nLiterature in June 1980, awarded a full professorship in 1982, and elected\nDirector of the university’s Islamic Centre soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early Fame<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahnon’s early short stories, novels, essays and criticism are cynical examinations of various Malaysian issues –\u00ad unafraid of taboo, he even wrote about sex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After two novels, Rentong<\/em> and Terdedah<\/em>, he published Ranjau\nSepanjang Malam (No Harvest but a Thorn)<\/em>. The novel cemented his fame, and\nwas so widely acclaimed that it became compulsory reading for Form 6 literature\nstudents for several years; the work received a film adaptation in 1983.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahnon, in a preface to GATRA<\/em>, a poetry anthology, wrote that\n‘We are Malays, in a battle to assert our identity through literature’. He\nexamines the Malay predicament in Rentong\n(Rope of Ash)<\/em>, a sympathetic picture of impoverished rural-folk in his\nhometown of Banggul Derdap, that emphasized the urgent need for development,\nand described the plight of farmers as not entirely the fault of the government\n— an opinion that differentiated him from a generation of ASAS 50 writers.\nWhile the farmers of Rentong<\/em> sought\nways to earn an honest living, they were wholly resigned to Allah: pestilence\nor relief, it was all divine will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Works<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahnon has written over 30 novels.\nWorks like Protes<\/em> focus on the\ndivine, while others, like Menteri<\/em>\nand Perdana<\/em> discuss Malay politics —\nall in the author’s signature, laid-back style: a combination of original\nmetaphors, Kedah dialect and repetition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1970, Shahnon published the novel\nSrengenge<\/em>. A work that Malaysia’s\nLiterary Prize Panel declared Novel of the Year, Srengenge<\/em> was an effort to synthesize traditional belief and modern\npsychology. Shahnon’s short stories — in the anthologies Anjing-Anjing<\/em>, Debu Merah<\/em>,\nand Selesai Sudah<\/em>; also in group\nanthologies — have also earned him several Literary Prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later on in his writing career,\nShahnon turned his attention to polemics about Islam, most notably in\ndiscussion with Kassim Ahmad about Islamic literature, as published in several\nissues of Dewan Sastera in 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shahnon published Shit<\/em> in 1999. A marked departure from\nhis previous work, Shit<\/em> was an open\ncriticism of the political climate at the time, with Shahnon lashing out in\nunbridled language, at the circumstances surrounding the sacking of former\nDeputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, and that year’s general elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somewhat unusually, Shahnon survived\nthe controversy, and still continues to write his mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1970:\nNovel of the Year, for Srengenge<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1974:\nHadiah Karya Sastera (Literary Prize) for essays and criticism <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1975:\nElected panellist to the Literary Prize Board<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1976:\nPejuang Sastera (Literary Pioneer) award<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1982:\nAnugerah Sastera Negara (National Literature Award) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1983:\nElected Panel Judge to the Literary Prize Board <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1980: A\nDatuk-ship from the Kedah sultanate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1993: Professor Emeritus, Universiti\nSains Malaysia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~~~<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loo Jia Wen is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer based in Kuala Lumpur. She also paints, potters, and writes about her travels. She hopes to be a food writer when she grows up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This biography is an edited translation from Biografi Penulis Wajah<\/em> (Third Edition), published by the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Published: 02.03.2007 on Kakiseni <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“I have a bit of a split personality,” says Shahnon Ahmad (January 13th, 1933; full name: Datuk Haji Shahnon bin Ahmad) in Amir Muhammad’s ‘Raising A Stink’ (Asiaweek; May 7th 1999). “People look at me and see a pious man, but there’s a repressed side which comes out in my writing. That’s when I don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":12,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,3541],"tags":[539,3847,225,3846,3848],"writer":[7701],"class_list":["post-27500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-literature","tag-literature","tag-maktab-perguruan-sultan-idris","tag-profile","tag-shahnon-ahmad","tag-universiti-sains-malaysia-usm","writer-loo-jia-wen"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27500"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39139,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27500\/revisions\/39139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27500"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myartmemoryproject.com\/ms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writer?post=27500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}