SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Since the fall of President Suharto in 1998 there has been an increase in the number of Indonesian female authors. Known as the sastra wangi (fragrant literature) generation, one of the shared themes of these writers is the explicit discussion of female sexuality. Several critics have praised these discussions claiming them as a means of answering and/or challenging patriarchal authorities in Indonesia. This paper compares and contrasts two contemporary Indonesian women's novels – Ayu Utami's Saman (1998) and Fira Basuki's Jendela-jendela (2001). Although these two novels are in the same literary genre, closer reading of the texts reveals that the representations of women's bodies in these two novels are significantly different. While Ayu Utami's Saman provides a challenge to patriarchal values in Indonesia, Fira Basuki's Jendela-jendela does not show such a rebellion.