Title: Girl-power or she-devils?: Unravelling the potential for a feminised reform movement in Ayu Utami's "Saman"Submitted by: Pam Allen, Lecturer, Indonesian School of Asian Languages and Studies, University of Tasmania, AustraliaAyu Utami took the Indonesian literary scene by storm in 1998 with her first novel Saman. The novel suggests the possibility of a feminised radical activist movement in contemporary Indonesia, through its female protagonists Yasmin, Laila, Cok and Shakuntala, and has been hailed as a celebration of 'girl-power' and female sexuality. However I will argue in my paper that ultimately their overt sexuality is their downfall. Shadowing almost every chapter of the novel, and paralleling a discourse of liberation theology, is the myth of the Fall. Laila's nurturing care and concern for the injured oil-rig worker Sihar evolves into a consuming obsession which threatens to destroy Sihar's marriage and Laila's own credibility. Yasmin, who chooses to give up part of her lucrative salary to work for legal aid, is eventually figured, by both herself and her lover, as a seductress. The sexuality of these women, while initially depicted as their strength, eventually becomes their weakness. Like Eve, the moment they become aware of it, it begins to impact negatively on the way they construct themselves, and the way they are construed by others. I argue in my paper that in the end the two male protagonists, Saman and Sihar, emerge as victims of predatory female sexuality from their encounters with Laila and Yasmin, and that the gestures towards a feminised reform movement are not fully realised in the novel. Return to Abstracts menuCarol Burnett Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899 Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
|