Jurnal POETIKA
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Mobility of Time and Transportation in Deogracias A. Rosario’s "Greta Garbo"
Full text linkThis study examines Deogracias A. Rosario’s “Greta Garbo” through a symbolic and spatial-temporal analysis to explore the tensions of Filipino identity under American colonial influence. Employing a close textual reading method grounded in postcolonial theory—particularly Homi Bhabha’s concept of colonial mimicry and Michel Foucault’s notion of heterotopias—the research investigates how the narrative constructs and deconstructs identities shaped by modernization and Westernization. The protagonist, Monina Vargas, idolizes the Hollywood actress Greta Garbo and undertakes a train journey to meet her lover, Octavio Razon. This movement metaphorically embodies her oscillation between colonial illusion and disillusionment. The train functions not only as a literal vehicle of transportation but also as a metaphorical site of psychological transformation and cultural negotiation. Temporal markers such as the ticking clock and the train’s motion highlight Monina’s internal conflict, emphasizing the fleeting nature of her colonial aspirations. The study underscores the psychological displacement resulting from emulating foreign ideals by contextualizing spatial movement between Manila and Baguio (Bagyo) as a symbolic confrontation with colonial reality. Rosario’s use of the train and temporal motifs critiques the pervasive reach of Americanization in shaping Filipino consciousness, portraying the fragility of identities constructed on borrowed symbols. This analysis situates “Greta Garbo” within the broader discourse of Philippine literature during the American colonial period, illustrating how literature becomes a medium for articulating the contradictions of colonial modernity. Ultimately, the study contributes to ongoing conversations on mobility, cultural displacement, and identity formation in colonial and postcolonial contexts
Racism in the 20th Century, Reflected through Nella Larsen’s Passing
Full text linkDuring the Jim Crow era, the artistic and literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance emerged. Black writers and artists of the time voiced their concerns about racial discrimination and explored their identities and experiences through their work. Literature became a medium through which racial conditions in the 20th century were voiced. Therefore, this research aims to analyze how Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929) represents racism in America in the 20th century. This novel tells the story of two mixed-race women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who grew up together but took different paths in life. Irene embraces her African American identity, while Clare “passes” as white and lives in “white” society. To answer the research question, the researcher used Hall’s representation theory. Representation is a perspective in reading a text that connects meaning, language, and culture. In other words, representation is the production of meaning through language. Through language as a medium for conveying information, new ideas will be formed and communicated in ways that can be accepted and understood by other people. This research employs a descriptive qualitative approach with primary data from the novel and secondary data from books, theses, journals, articles, and online sources. The findings show Passing by Larsen illustrates the Jim Crow laws and internal racism that influenced the lives and choices of Black individuals in 20th-century America. This novel also portrays the dilemma faced by Black individuals in choosing between living under a system of segregation or trying to “pretend” to be white people to gain privileges. This research provides new insight into the complexities of 20th-century racism and its effects on the everyday lives of Black individuals.
The Charms of the Nature vs. Realities of People Living alongside the Water in Indonesian Poetry
Full text linkIn Indonesia, a country in which 70% of its area is water, people relate easily to both the sea and inland water, such as rivers and lakes. Authors consequently also find inspiration in these bodies of water, expressing their admiration towards the beauty of nature. For example, while they originate from different literary eras, “Danau Toba” (Lake Toba) by Sitor Situmorang, “Sepantun Laut” (Like the Sea) by J.E. Tatengkeng, “Akulah Si Telaga” (I am the Lake) by Sapardi Djoko Damono, “Apa Kata Bintang di Laut” (What the Star Tells the Sea) by Iwan Simatupang, “Kali Martapura” (Martapura River) by Hidjaz Yamani, and “Perempuan Pesisiran” (Women on the Coasts) by Iman Sembada all reflect the dynamic portrayals of water in Indonesian literature, as a charm of nature from each poet’s perspective or a framework for criticizing the realities of the lives of the people who live alongside water. This research analyzed these authors’ interconnectedness with nature, employing the qualitative descriptive method and using ecocriticism theory, which explores how nature is depicted in the respective poems and connects human relationships to nature. The results showed that the poets easily relate to the river, lake, or sea, and aside from describing the beauty of nature based on fond memories, their poems are used as critiques of the changing relationship between humans and nature, as well as between humans and humans. Their portrayals of nature further reveal the feelings of belonging engendered by water, which they use as criticism for the destruction of nature and societal changes stemming from the need for progress
A Poet's Perspective: The Beauty of Life Reflected in Boris Pasternak’s Later Works
Full text linkThis article examines the relationship between Boris Pasternak’s life and his artistic expression through his later poems. Following Wellek & Warren’s (1954) qualitative biographical analysis of Pasternak, which is basically associated with the qualitative method, we examined his personal narrative that contributed to the formation of his poetic voice. Data were taken from Pasternak’s later poems, namely “When It Clears Up” (1956-1959)–to Pasternak’s life stories, mainly taken from Pasternak’s biography by Hingley (2021) and the compilations of his letters to his family and friends (Slater, 2010). This study revealed that the events in his life greatly influenced his creation because they became the key motif of his narrative. The death of his brother and sister was influential in his studies of mortality and death, including grief. Peredelkino was a small village, and his longer period of stay helped him to have a chance to escape in nature and to experience loneliness to the greatest extent. In addition, his poetic work carries the features left by his teachers Alexander Skryabin and Hermann Cohen. To make up for the criticism of Belyi, whom he met in the summer of 1911, Skryabin offered Pasternak the aesthetic ideals of the latter work, developing the principles of poetry. Thus, in addition to recommending for Pasternak’s literary reading material other authors’ opinions on various philosophical issues, Cohen’s philosophic teaching enriched Pasternak’s outlook on the world and launched the latter on his poetic path. Understanding the specifics of Pasternak’s late poems provides knowledge of his life shots and the interconnectedness between his experiences and creation. The novelty of this study is reflected in the integration of a biographical analysis with a poetic interpretation. Such an approach uniquely combines the qualitative biographical analysis with a close reading of Pasternak’s later poems
Exile Trauma and Gender Relevance in the Novel Pulang: Postmemory Studies Marianne Hirsch
Full text linkInspired by the real-life experiences of Indonesian exiles, Leila S. Chudori's Pulang explores the journey of an exile of the New Order regime attempting to come to terms with the trauma of the 1965 tragedy, and the inherited trauma of his daughter, who returns to the country of her father’s birth amid political turmoil. This research focused on revealing the discourse of exile as a victim who transmits their trauma to a subsequent generation, as well as the position of gender in the formulation of transmission, affecting the identification of trauma inheritance. Hirsch’s postmemory perspective was employed to analyze the process of trauma inheritance, which was rarely found in Indonesian literary works, as were the historical descriptive, causality, and comparison methods. The trauma inheritance experienced by the first generation is the trauma of loss due to the 1965 tragedy, which was then passed down to a child. Familial transmission becomes the basis of trauma inheritance, strengthened by affiliate transmission, which was a work of authentication in Indonesia. Gender plays a role in the affectivity of transmission, wherein transmissions involving fathers (exiles) and daughters are just as trauma-creating triggers. It is noteworthy that affiliative transmission fosters intersubjectivity among non-exiled female characters who are closely connected to the first generation, thereby enhancing the inheritance of trauma more effectively than familial transmission. The first generation is exiled and identifies its trauma by remembering and bringing with it Indonesian features, in various forms. In contrast, the second generation does it more concretely by becoming a real Indonesian. These findings underpin how an exile's trauma stemming from the 1965 tragedy can be passed on to the second generation, through a transmission process, a journey back to Indonesia, and gender relevance. Pulang redefines an exile as a victim and as an effort for reconciliation
Practice of Naturalism in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley
Full text linkNaturalism novels portray the reality of life in a sharper and more decisive way than realism novels. Naturalism takes the place of building a narrative, like shooting a photographic reality by zooming in. Narrative naturalism normally provides a sharp depiction of reality without idealization. This study identified the description of reality through elements of naturalism in the novel Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz. This study deployed Emile Zola’s naturalism theory with a qualitative descriptive approach. The primary data source was the novel Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, supported by secondary data from relevant books and journal articles. The data were in sentences or paragraphs collected by reading and note-taking techniques. The results of this study figured out the elements of naturalism in the novel Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz, including aspects of objectivity, setting, determinism, pessimism, and plot twists. The provisions for selecting these elements were based on findings practiced in writing the novel Midaq Alley. The novelty of this article lies in the discovery of elements of Emile Zola’s naturalism in the novel Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz and the evidence of a picture of the postwar situation of Egypt depicted in real, alive, but natural by the author
Radical Issues in Children's Narratives on Eliyas Explains What’s Going On in Palestine
Full text linkThe discourses about childhood and its entanglement with commonly discussed literature significantly impact children’s literature. This is reflected by writers’ drive to raise issues that do not always revolve around normative issues in their works. Lately, critical issues prominent in children’s literature include radical political unrest and social injustice, as exemplified in Zanib Mian’s illustrative book Eliyas Explains What’s Going On in Palestine. Zanib Mian’s work was the focused material object of the research. The research employed a qualitative approach, explicitly utilizing document analysis as the primary method. This study utilized Gerard Genette’s Narratology and Kimberley Reynolds’ theory of Radical Children’s Literature to examine how narrators convey these problematic issues to children’s readers. The analysis revealed that the narrator in “Eliyas” employed an autodiegetic perspective to foster understanding, effectively engaging children by sharing personal experiences and emotions. Furthermore, the radical issue of the Palestinian conflict, which was presented sensitively, profoundly impacted the children’s characters within the story and, by extension, the children’s readers engaging with the story. The novelty of this research lies in discussing radical issues without leaving the narrative dimension in literary works using narratological theory and the notion of radical children’s literature, especially in Zanib Mian’s latest work, which deals with politics and war in Palestine
Almost the Same but Incomplete: Orientalism and Eastern Resistance in Ben Okri’s “Belonging”
Full text linkThe prevailing sentiment is that colonialism is a thing of the past. However, the Western portrayal of the East is one of the shackles that still holds postcolonial societies. A diverse number of Orientalist writings and language perpetuate a rigid image of the people of the East as primitive, prone to tradition, and uncivilized. Such a representation tends to be perceived as true if it is told repeatedly, consistently, and continuously. This research attempted to provide insight into how imperialism operates in current discourses, how colonial power structures persist, and how these structures can be deconstructed, by presenting a re-examination of the presence of Orientalism in Ben Okri's short story, “Belonging” (2009), not as a careless reiteration of Western dominance, but as a type of Eastern resistance. This critical exploration was based on Edward Said's Orientalism theory and Homi Bhabha's Stereotype and Mimicry theory, and employed descriptive qualitative and deconstructive reading methods to re-evaluate the use of Orientalist stereotypes in the short story. The findings showed that the Orientalist view and stereotypes are unstable, creating a space for Eastern resistance against Western colonial discourse. This article thus sheds light on how Western perspectives on Eastern societies are embedded in literary works and at the same time discloses a possibility of resistance against Western stereotypes
Insta-Poetry as a Popular Product: A Case Study on Rupi Kaur Milk & Honey
Full text linkIn 2014, Rupi Kaur published Milk & Honey, a collection of poetry and prose exploring the female experience that originally appeared on social media, to widespread success. Insta-poetry, poetry disseminated through the social media platform Instagram, has since become a highly popular modern literary form, continuing to gain popularity since the day it was first published in book form. This research examined the phenomenon of Insta-poetry as a popular product with a case study of Milk & Honey, exploring the reasons Kaur's first self-published work was so popular and the contestations that drove Milk & Honey to become a popular Insta-poetry product. Foucault’s subject-power theory and Aeron Davis’ production were employed to retrieve the findings. Furthermore, a descriptive-qualitative method was applied in conducting and analyzing the data. It was found that Kaur utilized Insta-poetry to challenge social norms and empower women, trauma, and relationships. Consequently, Kaur decided to self-publish her Insta-poetry in a book even though it was considered too basic and detracted from the complexity of traditional poetry. Regardless of the controversy, Kaur has been able to play an impactful position in introducing poetry to a new generation and modernizing the way literature is disseminated
Deconstructing Rahwana’s Alternate Character in Neelakantan's Rahwana: Kisah Rahasia through Derrida’s Perspective
Full text linkThis study explored the deconstruction of Rahwana's 'Ravana' character in Anand Neelakantan's novel Rahwana: Kisah Rahasia through the lens of Jacques Derrida's deconstruction theory. The novel narrates Rahwana's journey as he strives to elevate the status of his family and nation. Derrida's deconstruction approach was selected to uncover the complex layers within literary texts, challenging traditional interpretations. As a descriptive-qualitative study, this research analyzed textual evidence from the novel to compare the initial portrayal of Rahwana with his deconstructed character. The findings indicated a complex duality in Rahwana's depiction: while his traditional characterization was marked by ruthlessness, arbitrariness, defiance of divine authority, and ambition, the deconstructed perspective revealed his compassionate, just, devout, and even pessimistic dimensions. These contrasting portrayals underscored the fluidity of Rahwana's character, which was uncovered through the deconstruction. The novelty of this research is to rethink of Rahwana's alternate character from his traditional character embedded in popular puppet stories through a deconstruction approach. Finally, the story of Rahwana has various versions, particularly related to Sinta's abduction. Some stories reveal Rahwana's love for Sinta in romantic ways, while in Neelakantan's novel Rahwana: Kisah Rahasia, Rahwana's love is depicted as a father's love for his daughter, not as a couple romance