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The book is structured around the translation of a Javanese shadow theater performance entitled Srikandhi Mbarang Lènggèr ("Srikandhi Becomes an Itinerant Dancer" or "Srikandhi Dances Lènggèr"), performed only in the Banyumas region (in west Central Java) by the locally renowned puppeteer, Ki Sugino Siswocarito. This study is a translation of the story both in a strict textual-linguistic sense and in a more general interpretive sense, providing an understanding of what the performance means to its Banyumas audience. More important, it shows how the puppeteer transforms the culturally universal traditions of Javanese ritual, shadow-puppet theater, and music to particularize the entire performance event for a local audience.

Matthew Isaac Cohen's evocative social history situates the Komedie Stamboel in the culture of empire and translocal flows of itinerant entertainment. He shows how the theater was used as a symbol of cross-ethnic integration in postcolonial Indonesia and as an emblem of Eurasian cultural accomplishment by Indische Nederlanders. A pioneering study of nineteenth-century Southeast Asian popular culture, The Komedie Stamboel: Popular Theater in Colonial Indonesia, 1891-1903 gives a new picture of the region's arts and entertainment through an exploration of the interplay of global culture, theatrical innovation, and the movement of people and ideas in colonial Southeast Asia.

Indonesians of Chinese descent constitute only two to three per cent of the country s population but dominate the private business sector. Serious acts of violence against this ethnic minority occurred during Indonesia s colonial past, and after a period relatively free of such incidents became increasingly frequent during the final years of Suharto s New Order. In this first book-length study of anti-Chinese hostility during the collapse of Suharto s regime, Jemma Purdey presents a close analysis of the main incidents of violence during the transitional period between 1996 and 1999, and the unprecedented process of national reflection that ensued. The mass violence that accompanied the fall of the regime in May 1998 affected not only ethnic Chinese but also indigenous or pribumi Indonesians. The author places anti-Chinese riots within this broader context, considering causes and agency as well as the way violence has been represented. While ethnicity and prejudice are central to the explanation put forward, she concludes that politics, economics and religion offer additional keys to understanding why such outbreaks occurred.

Sumatra is a vast and understudied island with a population of 43 million people divided into a variety of ethnic groups. Apart from William Marsden's great study of 1783, few serious historical works deal with Sumatra's history, and even fewer attempt to describe that history as a coherent whole. This book is the fruit of 40 years' study of Sumatran history, from the 16th century to the present. While seeking patterns of coherence in this vast island, it focuses on Aceh, which has both the most illustrious past and the most troubled present of any Sumatran region.

This volume considers 'Southeast Asia' drawn from a number of regional and disciplinary perspectives. The authors look at the region from the standpoint of Thailand and the Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong, Japan and the Asian mainland, the South China Sea and the seacoasts of the region. They also discuss the significance of borders, monetary networks, transnational flows of people, goods and information, and knowledge in shaping Southeast Asia both for its residents, for the scholars who study it and for the wider world.

De Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) had haar werkterrein in Azië. De twaalf artikelen in deze bundel analyseren de relaties tussen de Compagnie en de machthebbers op die Aziatische werkvloer. Zij bestrijken het gehele Aziatische octrooigebied van de VOC van Perzië tot Japan.

Veel historici hebben er de laatste decennia op gewezen dat de gedachte van 350 jaar Nederlandse overheersing over Indonesië een mythe is. De verovering was een geleidelijk proces en pas na 1900 deed het koloniaal gezag zich in bijna alle uithoeken gelden. Het gebied dat echter nog het dichtste in de buurt van die 350 jaar komt, is het gewest Ambon, dat reeds in 1605 door de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) werd bezet. Het VOC-bestuur over Ambon is over het algemeen gekenschetst als een niets ontziende uitbuiting van de bevolking door middel van een met geweld afgedwongen monopolie in de kruidnagelhandel. Dit boek beoogt, op basis van literatuur en originele archiefstukken, na te gaan wat de interventie van de VOC in werkelijkheid betekende. De nadruk ligt daarbij op de tweede helft van de zeventiende eeuw, toen de kruitdampen waren opgetrokken en het gezag van de VOC stevig was gevestigd.

History matters. At the beginning of a new century and amidst the turmoil of a new democracy, a historical perspective on modern Indonesia is needed more than ever. This innovative economic history connects back to the colonial era and helps to explain why the transition from colonialism to Independence and from the New Order to democracy has been so difficult and sometimes traumatic. The Emergence of a National Economy identitifies three grand themes in this transformation: globalisation, state formation and economic integration.

The principal cause of the 1930s depression in Southeast Asia lay outside the region--through a sharp contraction in demand for the region's major commodity exports. But it had important internal causes, too: an oversupply of primary commodities and an increasing scarcity of new agricultural land leading to higher rents and lower wages, rising indebtedness and increasing landlessness. This work thoroughly analyses the pre-war depression. It also looks at the changes in the basic structures of the economies of Southeast Asia that were of long-term importance, such as the role of the state in the economy. The authors also draw similarities and contrasts between the 1930s depression and the 1990s Asian crisis.

In the late colonial period (1870-1942), the Outer Islands of Indonesia formed a dynamic area. The economic development of these islands outside Java is analysed in this book by focusing on the enormous increase in trade after 1900. The Outer Islands are described individually and as a group, paying special attention to regional differences. The core of the study is to examine the effects of trade--foreign and domestic--on economic development. Although the economic policy of the colonial government played a role in the gradual formation of a national economy, it did little to advance the relatively backward regions of the Outer Islands. As one of the largest and most tumultuous economies in Southeast Asia, Indonesia nowadays attracts a lot of international attention. This book will serve the study of the diverse and dynamic economic history of late colonial Indonesia, which profoundly influenced post-war events and the formation of a national state.

Selayar, an island off the coast of Southwest Sulawesi and belonging to the Makassarese-Buginese realm, is dry and rocky, with a fragile subsistence economy. Yet in the late colonial period its economy prospered, as it became an important supplier of copra, or dried coconut, extensively used in the Western oil and fats industry as a raw material for soap and margarine. In the 1920s, the heyday of copra trade, many Selayarese converted their profits from the copra trade into gold teeth and hard cash. Copra thus earned the reputation of 'green gold'. In this book the author analyses the socio-economic history of Selayar between 1600 and 1950 from an Asiacentric perspective. This is linked to wider socio-economic and political developments, including peripheralization, integration into the world market, and colonial incorporation. The themes discussed are of interest to anyone studying the development of maritime societies: commercialization necessitated by a fragile agricultural system, export specialization, trading networks, migration and the unifying role of Islam.

Too much of what has so far passed for the 'historical background' to Indonesia's environmental problems has consisted of little more than thinly disguised backward projections of modern trends. The writers in this volume report on their own pioneer journeys into the paper landscapes of the colonial literature and archives in search of the real environmental history of Indonesia.

In the field of Nusantaran literary studies, systematic interpretations of individual literary works are still a relatively rare phenomenon. This book shows how such interpretations can be fruitfully produced for traditional Malay literature.

It is just over a century since the first manuscript of Désawarnana (also known as the Nagarakrtagama) was rescued from the sack of the palace at Cakranagara in Lombok. Once its importance for Javanese history was recognized, its place was assured: our picture of the greatness of the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit in the second half of the 14th century is based largely on the evidence of this one text, and it is true to say that this picture has formed an inspiration for modern Indonesians as well. The text is not a literary masterpiece, and it is not typical of its genre; in fact it is unique. One of the reasons for this is the fact that here and there its author, Mpu Prapanca, tells us something about himself, in particular when he accompanies his king as Superintendent of Buddhist Affairs on a long journey through the countryside of East Java in 1359.

The Javanese realms of Surakarta and Yogyakarta in Central Java were of prime importance in the politics of the Netherlands Indies, located, as they were, at the heart of the Dutch colonial state. This book covers forty years of the history of the Javanese Principalities in the post-Java War period (1830-1870).

This volume is the product of an international workshop on Women and Mediation, organized in Leiden in 1988 by the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV) and the Werkgroep Indonesische Vrouwenstudies (WIVS), a Dutch interdisciplinary study group on Indonesian women. The book contains a selection of fourteen contributions--sociological, anthropological, and historical--ranging geographically 'from Sabang to Merauke' from the Toba Batak (North Sumatra) to the Dani (Irian Jaya). Loosely centred around the concept of mediation, many of the articles include new data derived from archival research and fieldwork.

De westerse grootlandbouwondernemingen die aan het eind van de vorige eeuw in Sumatra's Oostkust ontstonden werden gekenmerkt door de inzet op grote schaal van Chinese en Javaanse contractkoelies, die als dwangarbeiders vastzaten aan hun plantages. De advocaat Van den Brand vestigde in een geruchtmakende brochure die in 1902 verscheen--in dit boek in facsimile opgenomen--de aandacht op de wrede behandeling waaraan zij blootstonden. Onder politieke druk liet minister van koloniën Idenburg een onderzoek instellen. De rapportage hierover--in zijn geheel opgenomen--bevestigde de misstanden. De minister hield het rapport geheim. Tegen de ergste uitwassen werden maatregelen genomen. Het nauwe samenspel van koloniale bestuurders en kapitalistische ondernemers, zo kenmerkend voor de toenmalige koloniale ontwikkelingspolitiek, ook elders in koloniaal Azië, bleef ook daarna in stand. De auteur beschrijft en verklaart het ontstaan van de plantagesamenleving en daarna, geïllustreerd met vele voorbeelden, de barre omstandigheden waaronder de contractkoelies moesten werken en leven.

Exhibition catalogue, Brussels, Bibliotheca Wittockiana, 7 May-15 September 2002.

This book about the work of actor director John Bell is essential reading for anyone interested in Australian theatre and in Shakespearean performance. Adrian Kiernander lucidly explains how, for over five decades, Bell has revived and reinvented theatre in Australia with his interpretations of radical new drama and particularly his innovative approach to staging Shakespeare's plays.

With Variants' traditionally strong focus on textual editing in the electronic era, this issue has no less than four articles on the frameworks, principles and aspects of state of the art digital editions and best practice in digital scholarly editing.

The present "turn to religion" has also meant a rekindled interest in transcendence, a concept once deemed a relic of a metaphysical past. This volume approaches transcendence from a particular perspective: that of language and literature seen as a matrix of expression of transcendence and its interplay of immanence. The essays in this volume probe the poetic and literary devices through which transcendence has been solicited, evoked, and generated. This has also meant revisiting the long Christian tradition, not simply to rehabilitate it but as an indispensable source for present writing and thinking.

All over Europe and in the Arabic world, and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written. These chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them.

This work attempts a psychoanalytic listening to the 'oral' Homeric epics in an effort to extract, as it were, from the ancient text certain elements of psychoanalytic understanding that are of relevance to contemporary psychoanalysis. There is, in addition, a consideration of related philosophical and linguistic issues that are linked to the basic psychoanalytic concepts that emerge from such a listening.

Un phénomène nouveau est sur le point de modifier en profondeur la représentation traditionnelle, vieille de plus de deux siècles, de la création littéraire: l'atelier d'écriture. Entre une pratique scripturale de plus en plus ouverte et un système qui repose encore sur une conception sacrée de la littérature, du moins en France, une situation inédite s'énonce: les mythes de l'écriture et de l'écrivain sont-ils en passe d'être détrônés ?Afin de mieux comprendre la faveur dont jouissent les ateliers depuis quelques années, cet ouvrage interroge la place que nous accordons encore aux mythes et aux rites de l'écriture. Portant sur l'expérience particulière de l'écriture, de la naissance de la vocation au phénomène de l'inspiration, observant la relation que les écrivains entretiennent avec une création tissée de rituels, de représentations anciennes et de techniques, Le Roman de la création trace les changements, entre mythes et pratiques, qui s'esquissent dans le champ littéraire actuel.

In Lautréamont, Subject to Interpretation, Andrea S. Thomas carefully explores varying edtions of Les Chants de Maldoror to show how impassioned readers can shape not only the reception of works, but the works themselves.

Cet ouvrage apporte un éclairage nouveau à l'histoire littéraire et artistique du surréalisme par un biais inédit: l'étude du catalogue d'expositions surréalistes (CES). Se penchant sur un genre interdisciplinaire jusque-là peu étudié, le catalogue d'exposition, il en retrace les fonctions définies par l'institution Royale du XVIIe siècle et son développement pour montrer comment les surréalistes subvertissent les formes traditionnelles liées à la description, l'explication et l'évaluation des oeuvres exposées.

While scholars frequently discuss different types of value separately, this book approaches values of literature in the plural. It shows how and why the ethical, aesthetic, cognitive, affective, social, historical, and existential values of literature should be explored in connection with each other. Through their interplay, the book argues, literature engages in its own distinctively literary forms of value inquiry.