Bernard Arps, born in Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1961. Ph.D. from Leiden University. Professor of Javanese Linguistics and Literature at Leiden University.
Fellow (1 September 2001 – 30 June 2002)
During the fellowship period, I concentrated on preparing and writing a contribution to the Handbook of Javanese Literature. The editorial work will take place in 2003. I completed the draft versions of twelve chapters and did in-depth primary research on three kinds of materials. For the HJL chapters “Javanese on the internet” and “literacy in the scripts used for writing Javanese”, I monitored the use of Javanese on the world-wide web, especially an active e-group devoted to Javanese language and culture. For two other chapters, I studied microfilms, recently arrived at the KITLV in Leiden, of handwritten and typescript scenarios and programme notes for Javanese shadow-puppet performances in Indonesian collections. For three chapters, I analysed recordings of interviews and radio broadcasts which I had made in Java in 1996 to 2001. The preparatory research for the other chapters had already been done before the fellowship period began.
I also worked on two other books: one an introduction to the cultural dimensions of the audio and audiovisual media in Indonesia, the other on the vicissitudes of a variety of Javanese in East Java in the twentieth century. I presented three papers at scholarly meetings in Leiden, Madison WI, and Washington DC, and gave a lecture in Madison.