MODERNITAS DAN SEMANGAT KEBANGSAAN: ANALISIS TEMATIS KARYA PROSA DAN PUISI ANGKATAN PUJANGGA BARU

Abstract

This study aims to describe the forms of modernity and nationalism and to examine the relationship between the two in the prose and poetry of the Pujangga Baru generation. The research employed a qualitative approach using a descriptive-analytical method. The data sources consisted of literary works of the Pujangga Baru period, particularly the novels Layar Terkembang, Belenggu, and the poems of Amir Hamzah. Data were collected through library research and document analysis and were interpreted using the perspectives of sociology of literature, Lucien Goldmann’s genetic structuralism, and Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities theory. The findings reveal that modernity in Pujangga Baru literary works is reflected through rationality, education, women’s emancipation, and socio-cultural transformation. Nationalism is represented through love for the homeland, national unity, national identity awareness, and the struggle for independence. The study further demonstrates that modernity and nationalism are closely interconnected and mutually reinforcing. Education, rational thinking, and emancipation are portrayed as essential elements in the process of building a progressive, modern, and independent nation. Therefore, the literary works of the Pujangga Baru generation function not only as aesthetic expressions but also as reflections of social realities and as instruments for fostering national consciousness among Indonesians during the colonial period