Structural Mythologies to Establish Post-coloniality: The Cases of Indonesian and Caribbean Literatures

Abstract

. The nature of literature covers two prominent entities: performance in words and significance. In Levi-Strauss’ concept about the phenomena, those are to establish literature structurally, in which, applying Horatian terms, the entity of performance is about the aspect of being dulce and the entity of significance is about the aspect of utile. However, in the context of modern discourse, performance, or dulce, would refer to its utility on the existence of “myth” and significance, or utile, refers to literature’s ideology. In the cases of Indonesian and Caribbean literatures, this paper will discuss those entities, especially dealing with the ideology of post-coloniality while its myth as the tool of delivering the story. Derek Walcott’s Omeros will represent the Caribbean post-coloniality, and some Indonesian present short stories, published in media, represent the Indonesian literature. The main objective of this talk is to prove that both Indonesian and Caribbean literatures remain to hold the structurally traditional concepts of literature despite its ideology of post-coloniality.