Clearing a space: Postcolonial readings of modern Indonesian literature

This collection draws together the work of authors from Indonesia, Australia, North America, and Europe, in the first comprehensive attempt to relate modern Indonesian literature to the insights and approaches of postcolonial theory and literary criticism. The essays in the collection range over the history of modern Indonesian literature from its beginnings in the late nineteenth century to its diversity and growth in the 1990s. Some offer the fresh readings of well-known texts; others draw attention to aspects of the Indonesian literary tradition that have hitherto escaped the notice of scholars and critics. Grounded in detailed analysis of local contexts, yet enlivened by comparative and theoretical perspectives, the collection places Indonesian literature at the heart of contemporary cultural concerns. Contents: Tony Day and Keith Foulcher: Postcolonial readings in modern Indonesian literature Doris Jedamski: Popular literature and postcolonial subjectives; Robinson Crusoe, the Count of Monte Christo, and Sherlock Holmes in colonial Indonesia Paul Tickell: Love in a time of colonialism; Race and romance in an early Indonesian novel Henk Maier: Stammer and the creaking door; The Malay writings of Pramoedya Ananta Toer Keith Foulcher: Dissolving into elsewhere; Mimicry and ambivalence in Marah Rusli’s Sitti Nurbaya Thomas Hunter: Indo as other; Identity, anxiety, and ambiguity in Salah Asuhan Barbara Hatley: Postcoloniality and the feminine in modern Indonesian literature Goenawan Mohamad: Forgetting; poetry and the nation, a motif in Indonesian literary modernism after 1945 Tony Day: Between eating and shitting; Figures of intimacy, storytelling, and isolation in some early tales by Pramoedya Ananta Toer Melani Budianta: In the margin of the capital; From Tjerita Boedjang Bingoeng to Si Doel anak sekolahan Marshall Clark: Smells of something like postmodernism; Emha Ainun Nadjib’s rewriting of the Mahabharata Michael Bodden: Satuan-satuan kecil and uncomfortable improvisations in the late night of the New Order; Democratization, postmodernism, and postcoloniality Will Derks: Sastra pedalaman; Local and regional centres in Indonesia Ward Keeler: Durga/Umayi and the postcolonialist dilemma.