Vertolking van De Oost: Intergenerational Memories of Dutch Perpetration during the Indonesian War of Independence in De Tolk van Java, De Oost and Kleinkinderen van de Oost.

Abstract

This thesis examines the representation of intergenerational memories of Dutch perpetration during the Indonesian War of Independence in De Tolk van Java, De Oost and Kleinkinderen van de Oost. Through comparative analysis, this study explores how these cultural artefacts reimagine the past and confront the complexities of colonial perpetration, subsequent trauma and its inheritance while taking inspiration from familial memories of the war. Chapter 1 investigates the representation of perpetration and its inheritance and draws on literary research on Väterliteratur to examine how the creators reflect on their ancestors’ experience in the war and how they construct their own connection to the violence. Chapter 2 delves into the (post)colonial dimension of memory, exploring how colonial practices affected the memories of different ethnic groups, Indische, Moluccan and Dutch, within the case studies, alongside their resonance wit the broader Dutch national cultural memory of the conflict. This thesis finds that, facilitated by the incorporation of archival materials, the novel, feature film and documentary explore perpetrator trauma and intergenerational consequences through tropes of burden and guilt while presenting different generational and ethnic perspectives. They demonstrate that colonial practices such as discrimination and segregation heavily influence the remembrance of perpetration by minorities who constantly resist this oppression and who, as soldiers on the Dutch side, experience forms of colonial violence, while simultaneously perpetrating violence. Consequently, this thesis finds that these case studies to different extents complement the current Dutch cultural memory of the war by building on inter- and transgenerational memory. This research thus illuminates how these cultural representations articulate postmemory narratives of Dutch colonial perpetration, contributing to the understanding of the remembrance of the Indonesian War of Independence within Dutch cultural discourse and its engagement with its complex historical legacies through inter- and transgenerational memory transmission. This analysis into the (post)colonial dimension of these narratives additionally attributes to the field of perpetrator studies, specifically the investigations of intergenerational memory of perpetrator pain, as it examines a colonial context. By exploring how colonial oppression intertwines with the remembrance of war and its inheritance, this thesis emphasises how colonialism has an enduring impact on perpetrators and their descendants, thus giving insights into how the workings between memory, trauma and historical accountability complicate within a (post)colonial context.