The Angkatan 45. Documentation

Abstract

As we have already observed, it is somewhat arbitrary to place the books discussed so far in a category separate from those of the Angkatan 45 and to discuss them before discussing the latter movement as a whole. In fact, if it comes to that, nothing of strictly literary importance occurred to make 1945 any more remarkable than the preceding or following years. As is always the case with fairly contemporary literature, the problem of distinguishing between generations is a difficult one; and there is often something arbitrary about periodization, there are no good criteria by which one can draw clear lines of demarcation. Still it may be useful to try to give a more general survey and characterization of the literary movement around 1945, in spite of the obvious difficulties and dangers of such an undertaking.