Myanmar writers haunted by junta

That was the message emerging from the second Irrawaddy Literary Fest, held in Mandalay from February 14-16.

“As a country we have been opening up, we’ve been trying to practice democracy as much as possible since 2010. And people are learning that we have our own indigenous writing. It doesn’t all come from Thailand. This festival also proves that the West has been taking an interest in Myanmar literature,” says Ye Htut, an award-winning poet and playwright who sits on the National Literary Awards selection board.

One of the more encouraging developments, he says, has been the shift in poetry away from traditional verse to a more modern style.

“Most of the poets now don’t follow the old-fashioned way of writing poems, with rhyming verse. They’ve been writing prose poems … which is good: it’s a more open form, with no censorship.”

During one panel discussion, “Is the West interested in Asian literature?”, former Far Eastern Economic Review editor Michael Vatikiotis dismissed the theme itself as based on an arrogant assumption.

“The question is almost out of date. The whole concept of ‘East’ and ‘West’ has become rather blurred, and the idea of literature and culture being joined at the hip is long gone. Whether you’re writing literature from an Eastern or Western perspective is no longer relevant,” said Vatikiotis, ” citing Indian author Amitav Ghosh’s convincing treatment of Myanmar in his 2000 novel, “The Glass Palace”.

“For me the question is, 

‘Is the East interested in the West?’”

For Myanmar writing, the interest goes both ways – at least in terms of translations.

Ko Ko thet’s PEN Award-winning collection of Burmese poets, “Bones Will Crow”, and Nu Nu Yi’s novel, “Smile As They Bow”, are often cited as outstanding examples of international Burmese titles appearing in English. Meanwhile, international best-sellers about Myanmar written by expatriates, such as Pascal Khoo Htwe’s “From the Land of Green Ghosts” and Thant Myint U’s “Where China Meets India: Burma and the New Crossroads of Asia”, are being translated into Burmese for local readers.

On the other hand, convincing Myanmar readers of the value of a good novel can be an uphill battle.

“Our responsibility [as writers] is to share the value of literature with humankind, especially Myanmar readers. But in the last four decades, that has been spoiled. They only read ghost stories. I know someone who has written 60 novels – all of them ghost stories,” says Ye Htut.

In another festival session, on totalitarian and authoritarian discourses, Ko Ko thett said that writers must always be aware of the leftover myths and rhetoric of the dictatorship that can infect contemporary writing.

“The state discourse may no longer be totalitarian, but the public discourse has been turned into totalitarian discourse,” he said, noting that the preamble to the 2008 Constitution begins with the three priorities of the armed forces, whose propaganda messages can still be seen on large public billboards throughout the country.

“One of the biggest myths is the myth of the indispensability of the armed forces,” he said, noting that Myanmar’s standing army had not always existed but was started by General Aung San just before World War II.

“The current leaders see the Three Kings [statues] in Nay Pyi Taw and think they come from the same lineage.”