The Social Realist Stories of Putu Shanty as Historical Record

What is it about?

Putu Shanty was one of Bali’s leading intellectuals in the middle of the twentieth century, but has been effaced from official publications identifying cultural leaders of the island. Along with his other literary and critical writings, his short stories, published in a variety of regional and national newspapers and magazines, were written in a social realist style. They were intended as interventions to influence the course of history, but they also leave a valuable record of historical discourse. ‘Anti-feudalism’ was a central discursive concern of Shanty’s, and while it was shared on a national level with other political leaders and writings, its implications on Bali were highly specific, involving local social contestation and attempts to redefine religion. We show how Shanty’s work expressed his position in 1950s politics and society, particularly as part of the group of intellectuals associated with the magazine Bhakti. This position was a contradictory one, both in terms of continuing earlier ideas of challenging ‘caste’ in Bali, and defending Balinese Hinduism while simultaneously trying to reform it. The role of intellectuals such as Shanty demonstrates significant differences between discourses of the 1950s and the early-twenty-first century constitution of ‘tradition’.

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