Syllabus of Creative Writing

Siswo Harsono arranged a syllabus for his Creative Writing class. This syllabus recommended for students or lecturers who are conducting a Creative Writing course.

1. Prerequisite: Writing

2. General Objectives:

In Creative Writing Program, the students will be introduced to the basics of poetic writing, prose writing, playwriting, and scriptwriting in order that they are able to write creative forms of narrative, poetic, dramatic, and cinematic texts.

3. Lesson Plan

• Meeting
• Discussion
• Sub-discussion
• Specific Objectives

1. Poetic Writing. Poetic genre, format, and, elements. In order that the students are able to understand the genre, format and the elements of poetic text.
2. Short Model Poems. Poetic adaptation. In order that the students are able to write and adapt short model poems
3. Poetic Composition. Writing a poem. In order that the students are able to write and compose short model poems
4. Prose Writing. Narrative genre, format, and elements. In order that the students are able to understand the genre, format and the elements of prosy text.
5. Short Model Stories. Narrative adaptation. In order that the students are able to write and compose short model stories.
6. Narrative Composition. Writing a short story.In order that the students are able to write and compose short model stories.
7. Mid Test. Creative writing test and assignment. To evaluate the students’ creative writings for the first half semester.
8. Playwriting. Dramatic genre, format, and elements. In order that the students are able to understand the genre, format and the elements of plays.
9. Short Model Plays. Dramatic adaptation. In order that the students are able to write and adapt short model plays.
10. Dramatic Composition. Writing a short play. In order that the students are able to write and compose short model plays.
11. Scriptwriting. Script genre, format, and elements. In order that the students are able to understand the genre, format and the elements of scripts.
12. Short Model Scripts. Scripts adaptation. In order that the students are able to write and adapt short model scripts.
13. Script Composition. Writing a short script. In order that the students are able to write and compose short model scripts
14. Final Test. Creative writing test and assignment. To evaluate the students’ creative writing for the second half semester

4. References

Bishop, Leonard. 1988. Dare To Be A Great Writer. Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books.

Brooks, Keith. 1995. The Complete Video Course. London: Boxtree, Ltd.

Hedgecoe, John. 1990. Hedgecoe on Video. London: Hamlyn.

Knickerbocker, K L and others. 1985. Interpreting Literature. 7th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Novakovich, Josip. 1998. Writing Fiction: Step By Step. Ohio: Story Press.

Perrine, Laurence. 1987. Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. New York: HBJ.

Skaggs, Calvin, ed. 1977. The American Short Story in Two Media—Print and Film. New York: A Laurel Book.

Wolff, Jurgen and Cox, Kerry. 1991. Successful Script
Writing. Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books.

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Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa

My worship is for God only Universe creator and all its I adore all of the great poets To whom worship God only

ASTINA.—The leaders of Kurawa together with General Baladewa, the President of Mandura, discuss national catastrophe.

DURYUDANA: All distinguished leaders! As though those tsunamy ocean, extraodinary raining season, rainstorm, flooding, they would sink the earth, bacoming global catastrophe. Is it also happening in Mandura?

BALADEWA: Yes—exactly! Even many areas have been flooded by tsunamy of the ocean.

KARNA: It happens in the Propince of Awangga, too! Fishermen have been the victims! Marine tourism dies! It ruins here and there.

DURYUDANA: What's actually the cause of this catastrophe? How can we overcome it?

SAKUNI: Excuse me, Sir! Prehaps Prof Durna has an authentic thinking and a sophisticated problem solving strategy.

DURYUDANA: OK, Prof Dur—go to the podium, please.

DURNA: Nah, hahaha… thanks! A great expert needn't boasting in the podium! Suporting form behind! Nah, hahaha… you see my dear Kurawa—these do not only happen in Astina, Mandura, Awangga that fall into catastrope, but also happens in Bangladesh. More horrible! Nah, theoretically—there are cause and effect! Such a catastrophic effect is caused by an impact. Tsunamic ocean, rainstorm, flood, and even the icebergs in both polars of the earth have been melting—those all are caused by human deeds that do not care environmental life. Irresponsible ocnum!

BALADEWA: Krrk-phew! Bastard ocnum! Who is s/he, Prof?

DURNA: According to my research, that's caused by Antasena's exsperiment in the abyss of an ocean.

BALADEWA: Krrk-phew! Son of a bitch, Antasena!

KARNA: What does he want?

DURNA: For he is an admiral of Amarta, he has a political purpose. For the sake of Pandawa national power! He wants to be the authority of ocean and calls himself Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa.

BALADEWA: What? Sang Hyang? Krrk-phew! Crazy! How insane Antasena is! Does such a title exist in holy book, Prof?

DURNA: Ah, No! I've read all bibliographies. The libraries of Sokalima University and Atasangin University I've researched. Either in ancient books such as Tantu Panggelaran, Kitab Manik Maya, Kitab Paramayoga, Kitab Kanda, Kitab Sudamala, Kitab Nawaruci, Kitab Gatutkacasraya, Mahabarata, Ramayana, or the modern ones—there is no Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa. Sang Hyang the forger! Holy falacy!

DURYUDANA: All right, make theexperiment fail, catch and justify him!

SAKUNI: How if Amarta protects him?

DURYUDANA: Attack!

“Good! Great! Acc!” + “Okay!” + “W-well!” + “OK!” + “Long Live Kurawa!” + “Long
live! Long live! Long live!"

BALADEWA: Krrk-phew! Percisely!

DURYUDANA: Al right, General Baladewa—lead the multinational troops. And Let. Gen Karna should lead the Paracommando troops of Astina.

BALADEWA: Yes, Sir!

KARNA: Yes, Sir!

“The Paracommandos of Ocean Operation—attention! Dursasana, Dursala, Dursata, Durmuka, Durkarna, Duradara, Durwigata, Durmagati, Kartamarma, Kartipeya, Citragada, Citramarma, Citrakandala, Citrayuda, Citraksa, Citraksi, Adityaketu, Bimabahu, Dirgabahu, Dirgalacana, Dirgarama, Dredarata, Drepasastra, Drestahasta, Drepayuda Drepawarman—ready to move!”

“March forward!”
“Yes, Sir!”

In the ocean war Kurawa
Is ready to attack Antasena

DASAR SAMUDRA.—Teritorial zone of Amarta.

(BOOM!)
“Krrk-phew! Bastard mine!”
“Look out the submarine!”
(BOOM!)

ANTASENA: Hmh, Kurawa—never think you can make Amarta defense ruin. Submarine of Antaboga the masterpiece engineering of Prof Dr Antaboga is very sophisticated. I'm Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa doing an exsperiment in the Oceanoculture Sea-Lab for the future of Amartan nation. Whoever can't go into this Sea-Lab.

Gara-gara
The earth quakes
The ocean storms

TUMARITIS.—In the earthly hollow-sorrow, Panakawan is joking.

“Excuse me, I’m Petruk Swayze. Dear Readres—how are you today? Fine? OK, so am I. Hehehe… in its story it's raining: wet, leaky, muddy! Ehm… Yun, Ren, Sis—what are you doing? Keep on showing off! When will you showw off in Matahari again? Alter! Go to campus please, hehehe… what about Wayang Kampus? Happy-dumpty! It's said: activist! Be scientific please, hehehe… not arty ah!”
“Talking to whom, Truk?”
“To my fans, of course!”
“Huh, pretending to be top n pop!”
“Hehehe… of coz! Eh, where's Gareng? Bang, Gareng Mbeling has been made yet?
Hurry up, it'll be played! I'll have a show—not only Bagong which is in action.
Boring!”
“U're sentiment to me, Truk!”
“I'm! Nah, that's Gareng! Come
here, Reng! Where’re ye from?”
“Show-biz!” + “Show off!”
“Zow, you know?
Not like u: show off. No sale!”
“Fuck u! I made an observation there to investigate the attitude of the consumerism culture to anticipate next business. It's enjoying!”
“O rather Bagong the urban!”
“Stop! Mr Jun is coming here!”

ARJUNA: Kang Semar—we should look for Admiral Antasena. So long he has not reported his job to Amarta.

SEMAR: All right, Sir.

Arjuna and Panakawan
Pass through the jungle

“E-e-babo-babo… Gog—there's a j-jungle p-passer c-comes t-to Pringgadinga-cala.
W-who's he, Gog?"
“Ssh! General Arjuna!”
“E-e-babo-babo… a-attack!”—(Whoosh!)—“C-ciaat!”—(Clunk! Thwack! Dig! Clunk)—“Hugk-khoeekh uhuooo… m-me d-dead, Gog!”—(Crash!)
“Cakil died, Lung!”
“Neven mind, Gog!”
“Grr-babo-babo, the deuce! Face me Dityakala Badaisegara! Hey, bro: Pragalba, Rambut Geni, Padas Gempal, Jurangrawah, Buta Ijo, Buta Terong, Buta
Endog—let's mob the devil officer!”
“C’mon!” + “OK!” + “Move!”
“One, two, three! Ciat! Ciat! Ciiaatt!”—(Boom!)—“Ouch! Ahk! Khk! Klk!”—(Clunk! Clunk! Clunk!)
“O Lord! All died!” + “All light! Let's go, Bro!”
(Whoosh!)—“Stop!”
“Who are u? O yez! It'z me Mr George! Yez, Mr Joz!”
“Wow! How cool the Buta's name—using a pop name! U loose, Reng.”
“Em… who are u, double Dutch?”
“Mistel Gabliel! Let's go ah! Nevel cale such a scloundle!”—(Thwack! Clunk! Dig!)—“Ouch! U beat me till bluised! Ef u wanna make wal, be spoltive! Caleless u!”
(Bang-bang!)—“Finish, Gong!”

All mal-giants
Died quickly

The teller tells
The tall tale

OCEANOCULTURE SEA-LAB.—Admiral Antasena called Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa makes the world riotious because of his invention of Abyss Ocean Defense System, and his Oceanomigration can solve the demography of the world in the future by creating Seascrapper Buildings. Such a phantastic exsperiment causes pro and contra all over the world. There's no mystic-magic if Girinata, the President of Sorgaloka, comes down to earth.

GIRINATA: O the World of Divas! Antasena—stop thy exsperiment! Don't go after the God's will! And take Sang Hyang of thy name.

ANTASENA: Sorry, I can't! This exsperiment is not just a mere expert pretension. This title is not for pretending to be great! This is for life's sake.

GIRINATA: Babo-khhk-phew! It's rude! Aren't thou afraid of the multiuniversal troops of Triloka?

ANTASENA: Sorry, Sir! No!

GIRINATA: The deuce! Catch him!

“Ay, Sir! Indra, Bayu, Brahma, Wisnu, Surya, Sambu, Kamajaya, Yamadipati,
Temboro, Trembuku—sergap si Antasena!”
“Ay, Sir! Ay, Sir! Ay, Sir! Ay, Sir!”
(KABOOM!)
“O the World of Divas!” + “Back off! Bayu back off!”
“Bergenzong-bergenzong, Antasena can't be destroyed! Actually super-powerful
he is! Dangerous! Only Ki Semar can overcome this case, Lord!”
“Look! Ki Semar's coming!”

SEMAR: What's the matter, Lord? Battling with Mr Pak Antasena I see. Mercy me, Maha Sang Hyang! For universe's sake—Sang Hyang Segara Rekayasa is actually moved by the power of Sang Hyang Wenang. Nah, Mr Antasena—the tour of duty's finished! Wenang creates, Wenang reengineers, Wenang nurtures nature. Is it right, Maha Sang Hyang?

“About LHN—our father's the expert!”
“What is LHN, Truk?”
“LHN: Lakonet of Hyang Nation."

SANG HYANG WENANG: Ki Semar's right! Manggayuh karahar-janing praja, memayu-hayuning bawana.

Pick the flower
To free whatever

By Ki Harsono Siswocarito a.k.a Siswo Harsono. Semarang, December 22, 2007

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Reading "To Helen" a Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

by Siswo Harsono, a lecturer in English Department, Faculty of Letters, Diponegoro University. Now he is promoting and developing a blog for lectures. He also maintain lakonet.com for his project introducing traditional Indonesian play a.k.a "wayang" on the internet. Lakonet was published in two local Indonesian language: Jawa and Sunda, Indonesian National Language (Bahasa Indonesia) and also published in the international language, English.


When I read poems written by Edgar Allam Poe, I am interested in a poem entitled "To Helen". The poem has archetypal and psychological meanings. The archetypal meaning of the poem relates to Greek mythology; and the psychological one relates to the biography of Poe.

TO HELEN

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore.

That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,

Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home

To the glory that was Greece
And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the regions which

Are Holy-Land!

1831


In the poem, Poe poeticizes woman beauty by admiring and comparing to diva beauty. His adoration embodied in his language use. He addresses a woman named Helen by an aristocratic and poetic word "Thy". He does not use "you" because he puts Helen in high position. Like in praying and worshiping, Helen's beauty is Poe's religious-aesthetic object. How romantic he is!

At first, I would like to trace the mythological and biographical relations. And then I would like to analyze the poem by using Freudian psychoanalysis perspective.

Mythological Relation

The title of the poem "To Helen" refers to a woman named "Helen". There so many women named Helen, and it is hard to trace which one that Poe refers. In line 2, the word "Nicean", in line 7 the word "hyacinth", in line 8 the word "Naiad", in line 9 the word "Greece", in line 13 the word "agate", in line 14 the word "Psyche", refer to Ancient Greek. It is obvious that the name Helen refers to Helen of Troy in Greek mythology.

It seems to me that Poe uses the image of Helen to adore a goddess-like woman. Who is the woman? This question leads me to trace the biographical relation.

Biographical Relation

Poe wrote the poem when he fell in love with a woman. She was the mother of his friend, Rob. Her name's Jane Stith Stanard. Poe liked reading his poems for her. And Mrs. Stanard liked listening to his poems. Such a writer-reader relation makes them fall in love to each other. What kind of love is it? Is it a kind of motherly or a sonly love? It is a kind of Oedipal love.

Poe adores Mrs. Stanard like worshipping Helen, the prettiest goddess and the daughter of Zeus. But the life story of Mrs. Stanard is not like Helen. The love relation between Mrs. Stanard and Poe is not like Helen and Paris. Poe's allusion of Mrs. Stanard is Psyche because her beauty makes Hera feel deadly envious and jealous. Because of her beauty, the queen of the goddesses Hera governs Adonis to kill her. Such envy and jealousy cause the death of Mrs. Stanard and the sad end of his love.

This phenomenon guides me to analyze the poem by using psychoanalysis.

Psychological Relation

Referring to the biography of Poe, his mother Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins died in 1811 when he was two years old, then Mr. and Mrs. Alan nurtured him. The relation between Poe and his surrogate parents led to oedipal tendency. Poe loved his surrogate mother, Nancy Alan; and he hated his surrogate father John Alan. The oedipal relation made Poe love motherly women and hate fatherly men. His love is embodied in his dark romantic poems like "To Helen"; and his hate embodied in his tragic stories like "A Tell-Tale Heart".

Poe's oedipal love is not incest of matrimony relation like in Oedipus. His hate does not make him kill his (surrogate) father like in Oedipus. He expresses his oedipal love and hate in his works.

His love can be categorized as dark romanticism because it has sad and sorrowful ending. For him a beauty lies in the deadly moment of beautiful women he loved. It is a dark romantic moment of myterium tremendum.

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Siswo Harsono

He was born in Cilacap on 18 April 1964. After finishing his yunior and senior high schools, he continued his study in English Department, Faculty of Letters, Diponegoro University, Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. After graduating in 1989 with a thesis entitled “Deformation: An Experiment towards An Existential Theory of Literature”, he enrolled to be an education staff in his almamater.

In 1997 he followed an international program of American Studies in Delaware University, America.

His creative writings are published in Minggu Ini weekly newspaper and Cempaka tabloid. His scientific writings are published in several journals such as Aras, Miracle, Lembaran Sastra, Kajian Sastra, and Renai.

His textbooks for Open University are Introduction to English Literature (2006), and Translation 9 (2007). His books are Penerjemahan Sastra (1999), Penerjemahan Ilmiah (1999), Metodologi Penelitian Sastra (1999), and Tentang Avant-Garde (2000). He teaches Creative Writing, Cross Cultural Understanding, Translation, Theory of Literature, Literary Criticism, Cultural Criticism, Sociology of Literature, Psychology of Literature, and Method of Literary Research.

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