Drawing from my own ethnographic research on gender and the performing arts in Indonesia this paper proposes to rethink applications of international feminist theories in global contexts using the novel Tarian Bumi (“Earth Dance”) by Oka Rusmini.
The novel tells the stories of four generations of women who confront issues of caste, sexuality, and motherhood. First published as a newspaper serial in in 1995, the novel has been translated into five languages and recently rereleased in Indonesia. The author describes herself as a feminist while engaging with specifically Indonesian and Balinese issues related to women such as adat (custom laws).
The novel provides an excellent case study to examine larger issues about the use and development of critical theories specific to Southeast Asia and ASEAN that might be expanded and applied to other regional contexts.
I am especially interested in engaging with the questions of:
- How might cultural and ethnographic research, which emphasizes local particularity, offer sources for suitable theoretical frameworks?
- How do creative producers borrow and create theory?
I engage with current discourses about the global uses of feminism (Chandra Talpade Mohanty and others), Western feminist frameworks, and specifically Balinese/Indonesian feminist writings.
Day 1 (May 27, Thu HK/SG time)
Panel 1: Rethinking ‘Trans-’ and ‘Post-’
9:30-11:30am HK/SG / 2:30-4:30am BST / 3:30-5:30am CEST / 9:30-11:30pm EDT / 6:30-8:30pm PDT