Sandokan of Malludu. The Historical Background of a Novel Cycle set in Borneo by the Italian Author Emilio Salgari - article ; n°1 ; vol.55, pg 29-41

Bianca Mariagerlich

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Archipel - Année 1998 - Volume 55 - Numéro 1 - Pages 29-41
Bianca Maria Gerlich
It was the object of this article to discover possible historical traces of the basic structure of the novel-cycle Ciclo dei Pirati della Malesia by Emilio Salgari, in particular the historical existence of its chief protagonist Sandokan. Since historical facts corresponding to the setting of the cycle can in fact be found, it is clear that Salgari's novel should not be read as mere fictional literature but rather as literature with an historical background. Besides some rather general historical facts and circumstances, even some of the details turn out to be historical. The names of persons, places and constellations that were well-known in Europe such as James Brooke, Sarawak and Labuan figure, but so do Sandokan and the flag of the tiger which were known at the time to a rather small group of people in Sabah. Salgari's dates are correct, too : Le Tigri di Mompracem starts at the end of 1849, and the original version La Tigre della Malesia in 1847 ; the battle of Malludu in fact took place in 1845. In the Yanez-passage we are informed that Sandokan was resident on the north coast of Borneo for a few years before he settled down in Mompracem.
Perhaps the fundamental messages of the cycle correspond more to historical reality than some reports by European contemporaries or historians do. The Sandokan' s fight for freedom against the European colonizers reflects historical reality. Salgari portrayed history from the perspective of the losers and not from that of the winners, unlike what one finds in most European literature of the last century. His protagonist, who belongs to the weaker party, is positively valued, whereas in official British historiography Malludu is obviously viewed negatively.
However, it should be realized that only the basic structure of the novel coincides in part with historical events and persons, whereas vast parts - especially the immanent actions - belong to fiction. The cycle shows a form of virtual historical reality : Salgari worked his story out upon a historical frame, the polarity between Sandokan and the British. The tension between this poles is essentially determined through the efforts of the colonizers. A detailed examination of historical analogies in the immanent parts of the cycle, or concerning Salgari's descriptions on Bornean customs, social relations and other aspects could bring forth further interesting results. The introductory question concerning the place of historicity in Salgari's Ciclo dei Pirati della Malesia can however be answered positively even on the basis of our preliminary examination. The three symbols Mompracem, and the flag of the tiger and Sandokan did exist and were handed down orally and in writing. But more relevant perhaps is the connection between Sandokan and the flag of the tiger through Sandokan's native country Malludu. He lived there and was indeed very probably in a position of authority. The emblem of Malludu was the flag of the tiger. Malludu was mentioned by Salgari in what may be seen as a basically correct historical context. His fundamental historical message privileges the Malay and not the European side. Salgari's anti-colonial interpretation thus finds interesting echoes in the modern discussion of nineteenth-century colonial expansion in Southeast Asia.
13 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: ARCHIPEL0
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1998
• Nombre de lectures: 65
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Bianca Maria Gerlich
Sandokan of Malludu. The Historical Background of a Novel
Cycle set in Borneo by the Italian Author Emilio Salgari
In: Archipel. Volume 55, 1998. pp. 29-41.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Gerlich Bianca Maria. Sandokan of Malludu. The Historical Background of a Novel Cycle set in Borneo by the Italian Author
Emilio Salgari. In: Archipel. Volume 55, 1998. pp. 29-41.
doi : 10.3406/arch.1998.3440
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/arch_0044-8613_1998_num_55_1_3440Abstract
Bianca Maria Gerlich
It was the object of this article to discover possible historical traces of the basic structure of the novel-
cycle Ciclo dei Pirati della Malesia by Emilio Salgari, in particular the historical existence of its chief
protagonist Sandokan. Since historical facts corresponding to the setting of the cycle can in fact be
found, it is clear that Salgari's novel should not be read as mere fictional literature but rather as literature
with an historical background. Besides some rather general historical facts and circumstances, even
some of the details turn out to be historical. The names of persons, places and constellations that were
well-known in Europe such as "James Brooke", "Sarawak" and "Labuan" figure, but so do "Sandokan"
and the "flag of the tiger" which were known at the time to a rather small group of people in Sabah.
Salgari's dates are correct, too : Le Tigri di Mompracem starts at the end of 1849, and the original
version La Tigre della Malesia in 1847 ; the battle of Malludu in fact took place in 1845. In the Yanez-
passage we are informed that Sandokan was resident on the north coast of Borneo for a few years
before he settled down in Mompracem.
Perhaps the fundamental messages of the cycle correspond more to historical reality than some reports
by European contemporaries or historians do. The Sandokan' s fight for freedom against the European
colonizers reflects historical reality. Salgari portrayed history from the perspective of the "losers" and not
from that of the "winners", unlike what one finds in most European literature of the last century. His
protagonist, who belongs to the weaker party, is positively valued, whereas in official British
historiography Malludu is obviously viewed negatively.
However, it should be realized that only the basic structure of the novel coincides in part with historical
events and persons, whereas vast parts - especially the immanent actions - belong to fiction. The cycle
shows a form of virtual historical reality : Salgari worked his story out upon a historical frame, the
polarity between "Sandokan" and "the British". The tension between this poles is essentially determined
through the efforts of the colonizers. A detailed examination of historical analogies in the immanent
parts of the cycle, or concerning Salgari's descriptions on Bornean customs, social relations and other
aspects could bring forth further interesting results. The introductory question concerning the place of
historicity in Salgari's Ciclo dei Pirati della Malesia can however be answered positively even on the
basis of our preliminary examination. The three symbols "Mompracem", and the "flag of the tiger" and
"Sandokan" did exist and were handed down orally and in writing. But more relevant perhaps is the
connection between "Sandokan" and the "flag of the tiger" through Sandokan's native country Malludu.
He lived there and was indeed very probably in a position of authority. The emblem of Malludu was the
flag of the tiger. Malludu was mentioned by Salgari in what may be seen as a basically correct historical
context. His fundamental historical message privileges the "Malay" and not the "European" side.
Salgari's anti-colonial interpretation thus finds interesting echoes in the modern discussion of
nineteenth-century colonial expansion in Southeast Asia.NOTES
Bianca Maria GERLICH
Sandokan of Malludu
The Historical Background of a Novel Cycle set in
Borneo by the Italian Author Emilio Salgari
Verona, early in October, 1883 : Two bright tiger-eyes glare down from
dozens of big posters. W A few days later the daily La Nuova Arena^ makes
it known that a certain "Tiger of Malaysia" is on his way. The mystery is
resolved in 16 October 1883, when the first instalment of the novel La Tigre
della Malesia by the Italian author Emilio Salgari is published in the same
daily. This serialized novel is about the adventures of a certain Sandokan, who
lost his North Bornean home, his family and his position because of the
intrusion of the British, and who fought them as a pirate, with his base on the
island of Mompracem, which lies off the north-west coast of Borneo. Salgari's
novel proved a great success from the time of its publication.
Contrary to the common assumption in Italy that the author invented most
of the action, the characters and the places in this novel, I will show in this
article that the setting was in fact basically historical. The background story is
the conflict between "natives" and "foreigners" in mid-nineteenth century
colonial Borneo. Salgari chose a "native" for the hero of his story. This point
is of particular interest because Salgari was opposed to the Euro-centric
perspective that generally prevailed in his own imperialistic days. For me,
1. These posters were the beginning of an extraordinary campaign at that time. Cf. Arpino,
Giovanni/An tonetto, Roberto : Emilio Salgari, il padre degli eroi, Milano 1991, p. 19.
2. La Nuova Arena, 14.10.1883. A second notice on the so-called "Tiger of Malaysia" was
published on October 15th, 1883. A reprint of the respective newspaper articles can be found in
the foreword to Salgari, Emilio : La Tigre della Malesia. Versione originale de "Le Tigri di
Mompracem " , Torino 1 99 1 .
Archipel 55, Paris, 1998, pp. 29-41 30 Bianca Maria Gerlich
Salgari's consistent conception, especially in the first novel of the cycle
centering around the Bornean protagonist, was so convincing that after
analyzing the novel I searched - as it happens, successfully - for the historical
existence of Sandokan.
Emilio Salgari
Emilio Salgari (1862-1911), Italy's best-known novelist for young readers
at the end of the last century, managed with his extensive work to sell a
considerable numbers of copies, as well as being the object of constant re-
editions and many translations. Originally Salgari had aspired to a captain's
career, but then turned to journalism. In 1883, he was successful for the first
time as a novelist with the serialised work, La Tigre délia Malesia (3), which
was published as a book under the final title Le Tigri di Mompracem in 1900.
This novel represents the beginning of Salgari's largest and most popular
work, the Ciclo dei Pirati della Malesia, at times also called Ciclo della
Jungla Indiana. The different cycle-titles may have resulted from Salgari's
choice of different locations : Five books are set in Malaysia (4), six in India.
The unity of the cycle is formed by the connection of the three protagonists
Sandokan, Tremal-Naik and Yanez.
A number of Salgari's novels with settings all over the world have been
filmed. At present there are sixteen versions of the cycle mentioned above on
film. Thus today, Salgari's work with settings in Malaysia and India is still
well-known due to repeated re-editions and films, and in Italy especially the
figure of "Sandokan" provokes immediate associations with Malaysia.
Unfortunately, there are so far been hardly any studies on Salgari's most
popular work by authors writing on Oriental studies in Europe. However
3. La Tigre della Malesia was published in the daily La Nuova Arena at Verona between October
16th, 1883, and March 13th, 1884, in 150 instalments. In advance of the edition Le Tigri di
Mompracem (1900) from the publishing house Donath (Genua) there were published two further
newspaper- series : one in 1886 (// Telefonol\A\oxno, 21.3. - 31.8.1886) and one in 1890/91 (La
Gazetta di Treviso, 15/16.12.1890 - 21/22.9.1891), in each case under the original title. Salgari
continually worked the text over and shortened it for the edition which was not intended for adults
unlike the newspaper-series. Even if the text was altered the content remained the same. My article
is based upon the version of the book-edition, but also takes the original serialised version into
consideration.
4. The novels set in Malaysia are marked with an asterisk (*) in the following list of the eleven
novels of the cycle with their first dates of publication :
Le Tigri di Mompracem (serial 1883/84, edition 1900)*;
I Misteri della Jungla Nera (serial 1887, 1895) ;
I Pirati della Malesia (serial 1891/92, edition 1896)*;
Le Due Tigri (edition 1904) ;
// Re del Mare (serial 1904/05, edition 1906)*;
Alla Conquista di un Imper o (edition 1907) ;
Sandokan alia Riscossa (edition 1907)*;
La Riconquista del Mompracem (edition 1908)*;
// Bramino dell' Assam (edition 1911, posthumous) ;
La Caduta di un Imper o 1911, ;
La Rivincita di Yanez (edition 1913, pos