Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel

Soewarsih’s autobiographical novel written in Dutch describes the difficulties facing Dutch educated Indonesians involved in the anti-Dutch nationalist movement in the late 1930s. It deals specifically with the role which women played within the movement and how their male counterparts took an am...

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Main Author: C. W. Watson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2009
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/1/sari27%281%29-2009%5B08%5D.pdf
id ukm-1157
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-11572016-12-14T06:28:58Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/ Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel C. W. Watson, Soewarsih’s autobiographical novel written in Dutch describes the difficulties facing Dutch educated Indonesians involved in the anti-Dutch nationalist movement in the late 1930s. It deals specifically with the role which women played within the movement and how their male counterparts took an ambivalent attitude towards them. In terms of its subject matter and its construction the novel reflects the sense of crisis of the first generation of Indonesians to have been exposed to Dutch/European culture with which they identified but which at the same time they felt they had to repudiate. Relying on a close reading of the text and references to critical works dealing with the author and the period, this article demonstrates how Soewarsih deliberately uses the novel both to give voice to her personal frustrations as a woman and to offer personal testimony of the atmosphere and events of the times. It also argues through this example that in all our postcolonial reading we must be cautious when we make use of autobiographical sources and contemporary novels to reconstruct perceptions of the past, and we need to ensure that, when reading the texts, we employ literary, anthropological and historical critical skills in equal measure Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2009 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/1/sari27%281%29-2009%5B08%5D.pdf C. W. Watson, (2009) Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel. SARI: Jurnal Alam dan Tamadun Melayu, 27 . pp. 125-142. ISSN 0127-2721 http://www.ukm.my/sari/index.html
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description Soewarsih’s autobiographical novel written in Dutch describes the difficulties facing Dutch educated Indonesians involved in the anti-Dutch nationalist movement in the late 1930s. It deals specifically with the role which women played within the movement and how their male counterparts took an ambivalent attitude towards them. In terms of its subject matter and its construction the novel reflects the sense of crisis of the first generation of Indonesians to have been exposed to Dutch/European culture with which they identified but which at the same time they felt they had to repudiate. Relying on a close reading of the text and references to critical works dealing with the author and the period, this article demonstrates how Soewarsih deliberately uses the novel both to give voice to her personal frustrations as a woman and to offer personal testimony of the atmosphere and events of the times. It also argues through this example that in all our postcolonial reading we must be cautious when we make use of autobiographical sources and contemporary novels to reconstruct perceptions of the past, and we need to ensure that, when reading the texts, we employ literary, anthropological and historical critical skills in equal measure
format Article
author C. W. Watson,
spellingShingle C. W. Watson,
Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
author_facet C. W. Watson,
author_sort C. W. Watson,
title Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
title_short Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
title_full Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
title_fullStr Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
title_full_unstemmed Feminism and the Indonesian nationalist movement: A reading of Soewarsih Djojopoespito’s novel Buiten het Gareel
title_sort feminism and the indonesian nationalist movement: a reading of soewarsih djojopoespito’s novel buiten het gareel
publisher Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2009
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/1157/1/sari27%281%29-2009%5B08%5D.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:32:32Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:32:32Z
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