{"title":"POWER RELATIONS IN TWO CONTEMPORARY INDONESIAN NOVELS WITH POLITICAL THEMES","authors":"Susilawati Endah Peni Adji","doi":"10.24071/IJHS.V4I1.2788.G1994","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Since Indonesia began its political reform in 1998, Indonesians have enjoyed increased freedom of expression, and as such it has been possible for long-censored themes such as politics to be freely discussed in contemporary Indonesian literature. This article examines two such novels, (1) Junaedi Setiono's Dasamuka (2017), which deals with Javanese politics during the Diponegoro War; and (2) Arafat Nur's Lolong Anjing di Bulan (Dogs Howling at the Moon, 2018), which deals with Acehnese politics during the Military Operations Era. This article borrows its theoretical framework from Fairclough, Bourdieu, and Gramsci, using the concept of power relations to investigate the novels Dasamuka and Lolong Anjing di Bulan. It finds that such power relations are strongly evident in both novels, particularly in their depictions of: (1) language as capital, (2) dominance and hegemony, and (3) opposition to outside dominance. This study finds that, in these novels, power relations have economic roots. Power is exerted, for instance, through (1) the taxation of civilians by the Yogyakarta Palace and the Dutch colonial government; (2) the land rental system implemented by the British and Dutch colonial regimes, which resulted in all profits flowing to these regimes, the Palace becoming economically dependent on these regimes, and the common people being reduced to laborers, and (3) natural gas exploration in Aceh, with all profits flowing to the Indonesian and American governments. Power relations in these novels, thus, are structured by economic factors, reflecting a Marxist paradigm. This reflects the Marxist view that economic factors are foundational for the class structure of society.","PeriodicalId":52879,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Humanity Studies IJHS","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2020-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Humanity Studies IJHS","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.24071/IJHS.V4I1.2788.G1994","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Since Indonesia began its political reform in 1998, Indonesians have enjoyed increased freedom of expression, and as such it has been possible for long-censored themes such as politics to be freely discussed in contemporary Indonesian literature. This article examines two such novels, (1) Junaedi Setiono's Dasamuka (2017), which deals with Javanese politics during the Diponegoro War; and (2) Arafat Nur's Lolong Anjing di Bulan (Dogs Howling at the Moon, 2018), which deals with Acehnese politics during the Military Operations Era. This article borrows its theoretical framework from Fairclough, Bourdieu, and Gramsci, using the concept of power relations to investigate the novels Dasamuka and Lolong Anjing di Bulan. It finds that such power relations are strongly evident in both novels, particularly in their depictions of: (1) language as capital, (2) dominance and hegemony, and (3) opposition to outside dominance. This study finds that, in these novels, power relations have economic roots. Power is exerted, for instance, through (1) the taxation of civilians by the Yogyakarta Palace and the Dutch colonial government; (2) the land rental system implemented by the British and Dutch colonial regimes, which resulted in all profits flowing to these regimes, the Palace becoming economically dependent on these regimes, and the common people being reduced to laborers, and (3) natural gas exploration in Aceh, with all profits flowing to the Indonesian and American governments. Power relations in these novels, thus, are structured by economic factors, reflecting a Marxist paradigm. This reflects the Marxist view that economic factors are foundational for the class structure of society.
自1998年印尼开始政治改革以来,印尼人享有越来越多的言论自由,因此,在当代印尼文学中,长期受到审查的政治等主题得以自由讨论。本文考察了两部这样的小说,(1)朱纳迪·塞tiono的《Dasamuka》(2017),讲述了第波涅戈罗战争期间爪哇的政治;(2)阿拉法特·努尔(Arafat Nur)的《Lolong Anjing di Bulan》(Dogs Howling at the Moon, 2018),讲述了军事行动时代的亚齐政治。本文借鉴费尔克劳、布迪厄和葛兰西的理论框架,运用权力关系的概念来考察小说《达萨穆卡》和《洛龙安宁狄布兰》。研究发现,这种权力关系在两部小说中都非常明显,特别是在它们对:(1)语言作为资本,(2)统治和霸权,(3)反对外部统治的描述中。本研究发现,在这些小说中,权力关系具有经济根源。例如,通过(1)日惹皇宫和荷兰殖民政府对平民征税来行使权力;(2)英国和荷兰殖民政权实行的土地租赁制度,导致所有的利润都流向了这些政权,王室在经济上依赖于这些政权,普通民众沦为劳工;(3)亚齐的天然气勘探,所有的利润都流向了印尼和美国政府。因此,这些小说中的权力关系是由经济因素构成的,反映了马克思主义的范式。这反映了马克思主义的观点,即经济因素是社会阶级结构的基础。