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ENGLISH SEMINAR

FINAL TEST

“REDEFINITION OF LITERARY FILM”

Alfi Arifian (2095111018)

Faculty of Culture Studies

Yogyakarta University of Technology

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2015

Abstract

Film is a literary work. This long debatable

statement brings film to actual proof that film is a

modern act of stage or drama since it has similar aspect

by using symbol, index and complex audio-visual

metaphoric icon as language medium. Referring to Plato’s

theory of literature that it is an imitation or depiction

of reality, represents most theme of film which brings

message based on reality. According to Ahmad Badrun

(1983:16) that literature is the art activities that use

language and other symbols, and imaginative, is another

proof that film is a part of literary work. Since then,

in Indonesian terminology here comes new combination

between both cinematography and literature; that is literary

film.

This term exists since post-ecran of Habiburrahman

El Shirazy’s best remembered novel Ayat-Ayat Cinta.

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Indonesian literature devotees mention the novel as the

birth of “sastra santri” which then followed by numerous

authors in the veil of religious theme. Thus, it defies

other theme of film such as bringing common hedonism and

sexuality as not literary. If film is literary work, then

all films will have to be literary. That is why it needs

redefinition upon the term literary film since it creates

dichotomy in film genres.

Keywords: literary film, Plato’s theory of literature, sastra santri, ecran,

redefinition.

I. Introduction

Those who are devoting themselves in the literature

must have known one of the masterpieces of outstanding

English playwright in the golden age era, William

Shakespeare’s Cleopatra and Marc Anthony tragedy. This

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well-preserved literary work of the maestro has been

adapted to various versions of play, both on stage and on

screen. The first appeared screen performance of this

tragedy was Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra in 1936 by

Paramount Picture and Universal Studio. This process

commenced the technique of literary work adaptation to

the screen which in modern day is called “ecran” from

French word.

In 1948, Universal Studio produced another

outstanding literary work of romantic period entitle

“Pride and Prejudice”, marking the first screen version

of Jane Austen’s famous work. Then in successive creative

process, another version of Pride and Prejudice were made

in 1980, 1993, 2005, and the latest is 2008 TV-Series

version from BBC. Those versions which originally are

literary work of Austen’s best-remembered novel were

adapted to screen as the visual interpretation of

different movie makers whose different opinion about

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Austen’s work. The word “ecran” from French means screen.

It means “ecran” is the technique used to adapt literary

work such as novels, plays, poems, or whatever written

language into audio-visual language that can only be seen

through screen or film.

Indonesian culture has found this term for long but

the implementation of people understanding is merely

lame. There are so many movie adaptations from written

literary works proceed our culture such as The Pit and The

Pendulum, Hannibal, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption, The

Notebook, Scarlet Letter, Atonement, Arsene Lupin, Memoir of Geisha, Da

Vinci’s Code, Harry Potter, Lord of the Ring, Ana Karenina, Jan Dara, Lady

Chatterley, Fifty Shades of Grey, Twilight, The Hunger Games, Divergent,

and etc.

Indonesian culture realized this ecran not long after

Hanung Bramantyo’s Ayat-Ayat Cinta was released and

gained national attention because of people’s curiosity

on the original work of Habiburrahman El Shirazy which

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finally came to screen. Rumors were spread then. Fans

were disappointed of what Hanung had made. It is far from

expected. People, who previously had read the novel

version and had creative mental of imagining the movie

that would have spoken precisely as the book, had a hard-

feeling upon it. However, other fans who understand that

movie and novel cannot be bent to have similarity support

the theory that bridge human’s thought upon the case of

difference between movie and novel through so-called

ecran. In other words, ecran is just the bridge for people

to understand the different between movie and novel or

other written literary works. But then, another term

appeared as common people mention as “film sastra” or

literary film.

It is approved that the term followed the booming of

Hanung Bramantyo’s Ayat-Ayat Cinta. According to Teguh

Trianton (Lampung Post on July 18 2009), post-ecran and

Islamic labeling upon the novel brought long debate about

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literature quality as if new genre of literary film is born.

From this overview literary film is film which complies

with religious value, educating people, and non-vulgar

content (conveyed in polite language). In the novel

version, Ayat-Ayat Cinta is called “sastra santri” and in

post-ecran work it is named “film sastra” (literary

film). Then the problem appears. If “film sastra” is

narrowed to the aspect of religious theme, education and

non-vulgar content, there must be dichotomy in this

terminology. It will put other genres of film to corner

even though they are adapted from novel or other literary

works because they have no rules of aspect but the

hedonism, sex, vulgar content, and away from religious

aspect. Here, it is important to exclaim redefinition

about the term literary film (film sastra) whether it defines

post-ecran or religious value (Islamic labeling) –

concerning with the content.

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II. Discussion

Before the discussion proceeds, here we have some

question:

a. Can film be a part of literary work?

b. What is redefinition of film as literary work

before we can redefine literary film as the new

term in our culture?

Definition

Literary Work

- Literature is the result of imitation or depiction

of reality (Plato).

- Literature is a social institution that uses

language as a medium. The language itself is social

creation. Literature presents a picture of life, and

life is social reality (Sapardi, 1979:1).

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- Literature is the art activities that use language

and other symbols, and is imaginative (Ahmad Badrun,

1983:16).

Genres of Literature

- Prose

- Poetry

- Drama

On this occasion, to narrow the material down, related to

the main topic of discussion about literary film, genres

of literature that we will bring up to the discussion is

drama. It is positively related to the aspect of acting

both on stage and on camera.

Those three definitions of literature from

literature expert are enough to defend the chains of data

that will be presented. Those three definitions can be

made as reference of statement strength. From the first

line, literature is the imitation or depiction of reality, conforms to

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the role of film. Nowadays film or TV-drama is depicting

the reality of everyday human life for example the famous

TV-drama in RCTI “Tukang Bubur Naik Haji”. They assume to

find easy way to create interesting conflict in everyday

human life than creating fictional impossible conflict

that never happen to all people. This line is just to

show us that literary work comes from personal sight upon

matters around them or empiric. Some say ethno-studies

are always easy to write. And the result of writing is

called literary work.

Strengthen by the second line; literature is a social

institution that uses language as a medium. The language itself is social

creation. Literature presents a picture of life, and life is social reality. Word

or language is the main medium to express despondency,

fear, happiness, personal outlook, or even love message.

Language is the key of communication among people as the

subject of civilization. This civilization or social

institution will grow up emotional relation, influence

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psychological aspect of individual relationship, bearing

extreme opinions, or even creating social life through

language. Language is social creation and life is social

reality. Both can be covered up in literature. Any media

which can depict such things will be assumed as

literature.

And the third line, literature is the art activities that use

language and other symbols, and is imaginative, convince the

definition of literature. That literature besides

prioritize language as the medium as symbol, it needs

imagination of the creator. It is a part of art process.

It is true that literature is the depiction of reality

and sometimes is the empirical experience endured by the

creator, but still imagination plays the big role to

comply with readers’ segmentation. For example in the

real life someone has no enemy to fear, but in the story

is always needed both protagonist and antagonist. A good

story always presents good old-fashioned villain to grip

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reader’s emotion. Mostly people do not like flat plot of

the story. They like things of adventurous, challenging

and beyond their average understanding of real life even

beyond their imagination. They need fresh-start of

everything. And literature in the level of art product

with all the imagination implied can give what people

want and what people need.

According to those three definitions, film can be

categorized as part of literatures. First film depicts

reality of everyday human life, and film has similarity

of acting on stage. It only differs with script and

scenario. If drama or stage play is part of literature

(literary work), and then film as modern stage act on

screen can be part of literature. Film is on-screen drama

while play is stage-act drama.

Drama consists of two types; modern drama and

classical drama. Modern drama has goal and function to

educate people with everyday human life. While classical

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drama is a fantasy drama that generally tells of magic,

royal-life, the life of gods, extraordinary events, etc.

Drama is a Greek word means action. It is the artwork

that consists of literary aspect and aspect of staging.

Literary aspects of the drama are in the form of a play

and literary aspects of the film are in the form of

scenarios. So, based on the previous explanation film is

a type of modern drama and has similarity with the aspect

of on-stage drama in the form of scenario. This

explanation answer the first question that film is

literary work for it is the modern form of drama.

Literary Film

What is literary film?

Ali Imron (2009) in one of his paper stated that,

literary film is an adapted film from literary work and

admitted with synchronized original idea and narrating

method. Here, the substance is clearly in the word

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“adapted” because synchronized method of narrating and

idea is in the area of pronouncing technique.

Pronouncing technique in the film and literary work

is clearly different. Film speaks through a series of

overlapping complex sign system, while the literary work

speaks with a very simple system of signs in the form of

written language. According to Pierce, the system marks

on film and literary work have in common that consist of

icon, index and symbol. It only differs in complexity.

Icon, index, symbols in literary work are represented

with the written language. But in film, those three

system marks are represented with written and oral

language, sound of music, nature, setting picture, and

motion picture which create plots.

That is why the term literary film has similar exact

term “ecran” referred from the word “adapted”. In Bahasa

Indonesia it becomes “ekranisasi” or “ecranization”.

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According to Ali Imron, it is clearly the term literary

film is based on the ecran technique of adapting literary

work into film (literary film). So, every literary work

that is adapted into film is called literary film. But this

term is not common in the world. They are dealt with the

term “ecran”. The result of ecran technique is called

post-ecran. Film version of “Ana Karenina” is the post-

ecran of literary work of Leo Tolstoy.

Redefinition

After knowing definition of literary film according

to the phenomenon and possible aspect of emergence of the

term based on actual hints, we need to know the

redefinition of it and what possible advantage to

redefine this term. Mostly things which come up to the

surface without legitimate obscure the truth and make

previous things bias. The emerge of term “film sastra”

makes what people comprehend first as so-called ecran bias

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if the interpretation of “film sastra” is adaptation from

literary work into screen or film (ecran). Another impact

is dichotomy of film genre after the emerge of this term

that “film sastra” contains literary values that is

accumulated as literature product such as the value of

religious theme, value of education, value of language

usage in the level of aesthetic form like poem or even

more beautiful without offending sexuality or taboo

domain.

However, sexuality and taboo in certain literary

works by the famous author shift from free-thinking or

even different ideology that is acceptable in the world.

The meaning constriction to the term “film sastra” is the

castration of ideas of literature. So to find the

acceptable meaning after the emergence of the term, it

needs redefinition to build harmony in Indonesian

literature.

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According to previous explanation, this term appears

after the booming of Ayat-Ayat Cinta. If the term only

centers the matter on the adaptation from the original

work of Kang Abik’s novel, why doesn’t use the world

common term “ecran”, since before the era of Ayat-Ayat

Cinta, some Indonesian novels have been adapted to film?

By this case, all adapted film from novel will never be

mentioned as “literary film” although they experienced

what is called “ecran” such as Salah Asuhan, Si Doel Anak

Betawi, Badai Pasti Berlalu, Tentang Dia, Dealova,

Eiffel… I’m in Love, Cintapucino, Jomblo, Lupus, Olga and

etc. That’s why this term creates dichotomy in Indonesian

literature and filmography.

If this term is measured by the quality of

literature, assuming Ayat-Ayat Cinta as “film sastra” and

others are not is discrimination. Poplit, Teenlit, and

Chicklit are new genres of literature based on interest

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and readers segmentation which means, they are part of

literature too. Every written work is literature.

And if the term is measured by the aspect of

religious labeling, it must be impossible to accept for

this pluralist country has given right of free speaking

managed by the law and because Indonesian literature is

dominated by Poplit, Teenlit, or Chicklit with most young

authors contribute creative ideas which rarely bring the

value of religious.

It is important to redefine term “film sastra”.

There are two significances that can give consideration

of wide explanation of term “film sastra”.

First, does film refers to Film Sastra is merely

ecran? If so, almost all films are literary films

except the animated one that has no reference to

literary works. And there should be no dichotomy

between the Islamic and non-Islamic labeled. Because

what is important is the message not the clothes.

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Second, if Film Sastra is the film that the way of

speaking uses literary language, which tends multi-

interpretation, movies like the work of Christopher

Nolan can enter in this category. For many his

movies play symbol, index, and stacked audio-visual

metaphorical icons.

III. Conclusion

To redefine literary film (film sastra), answers of

questions above will take the place of individual answer

which would be different in responding it. The emergence

of term “film sastra” is mostly influenced by the rapid

movement of information through sophisticated media in

sophisticated technology. Plus, our culture to curiosity

lead us to find the source of problem and raise it to

daily issue and be discussed in community. This case made

Ayat-Ayat Cinta fever or Kang Abik’s effect spread

through the country in 2007.

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After the post-ecran, all Kang Abik’s novel were

hunted and created independent social institution called

“sastra santri” as the birth of new genre of Indonesian

literature authored by pesantren alumnus. Because “sastra

santri” changed the face of Indonesian literature, then

this phenomenon was followed by the establishment of new

Islamic publishers that only publish the work of Islamic

theme. Since then Islam revived in the meadow of

literature after it ever dominated national literature in

the era of pre-independence by Minang-birth men of

letter.

Perhaps because Islam as the major ideology in

Indonesia ever experienced enlightened era in literature

with the strong characteristic, all literary works

related to this theme is called “sastra” or “sastra

murni” or “sastra santun”. Islam teaches value of

religious aspects through literary work and to build new

men, new hope. From this case, it is possible for those

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who devote themselves in “Islamic Literature” to claim

“film sastra” after the revival of “Islamic Literature”

by Kang Abik was adapted to screen. Regardless to

ambiguity of people perception upon the term “film

sastra”, it has given contribution to Indonesian

literature. Because this matter happens in our country

and this term is appeared to ease common people to

understand what ecran is. It is only a matter of choice.

As people who have known the subject, better to use our

intellectual prowess to state “ecran” than “film sastra”.

And for common people, it is legal to say “film sastra”

to represent film adaptation from novel, to claim film

that is using full of icon, index and symbol and complex

sign system, picture of setting, nature, sound of music

in expressing implicit meaning of the film or using

aesthetic language like poem. Redefinition of term

Literary Film (film sastra) is not to claim one statement

of the truth, but to let literature plays its role as

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imaginative work, aesthetic value, campaigning beyond

imagination and teaching people to enjoy life in free-

thinking.

Source:

http://krenomedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/pengertian-

sastra-secara-umum-dan.html

Lampung Post, Sabtu, 18 Juli 2009 (Teguh Trianton)