V. I. Braginskiĭ

Ben Murtagh

This volume, comprising eight closely related articles which were originally presented at the EUROSEAS 2004 conference in Paris, examines the depiction of foreigners in a range of Indonesian and Malay literary works spanning four centuries, from traditional texts in Malay and Javanese to modern Malaysian fiction and a Singaporean novel written in English. Sharing ideas of Said's conception of Orientalism and its 'twin-brother' Occidentalism, and Todorov's theory of monological and dialogical inter-cultural and inter-ethnic relations, the authors of the papers concentrate on the problem of the 'other'. The crux of this problem is how literary discourse of the examined writers, both traditional and modern, reveals the images and perceptions of their Malay and Indonesian neighbors and the world beyond, the Western world in particular.

Essays on the Ethnic "other"

The Portrayal of Foreigners in Indonesian and Malay Literatures

Indonesia has a long and rich tradition of homosexual and transgender cultures, and the past 40 years in particular has seen an increased visibility of sexual minorities in the country, which has been reflected through film and popular culture. This book examines how representations of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals and communities have developed in Indonesian cinema during this period. The book first explores Indonesian engagement with waria (male-to-female transgender) identities and the emerging representation of gay and lesbi Indonesians during Suharto’s New Order regime (1966-98), before going on to the reimagining of these positions following the fall of the New Order, a period which saw the rebirth of the film industry with a new generation of directors, producers and actors. Using original interview research and focus groups with gay, lesbi and waria identified Indonesians, alongside the films themselves and a wealth of archival sources, the book contrasts the ways in which transgendered lives are actually lived with their representations on screen.

Ben Murtagh

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