Homogenous representations of Indonesia as the Other in Western authored/illustrated books

Homogenous representations of Indonesia as the Other in Western authored/illustrated books

By Nicke Yunita Moecharam
In his famous book Orientalism (1979), Edward Said holds that there is a distinct history of European representation and appropriation of the Orient, and this notion is somehow related to the history of European colonialism. For centuries, the constructions of the Orient established by the Occident (Western European) are widely acknowledged in the world, used in different contexts, which have been continuously shaped and reshaped by western metaethic (Stephens and McCallum, 1998). Thus, most of the representations of the eastern and eastern cultures tend to be homogenous or naturalized by the accepted Eurocentric ideologies as ‘truths’.
My central thesis in this presentation is that the uses and abuses of Indonesian cultures and folktales in western authored book subsume the idea of homogenous oriental representations and values which are naturalized as ‘truth’. Focusing on a combination of books for children and young adults written and illustrated by both western and Indonesian origins; this presentation will endeavor to reveal the generalized and stereotyped representation(s) of Indonesia that produced within western normative humanist values and ideas of orientalist. The following texts that will be examined are Snow, Fire, Sword by Sophie Masson, The Magic Crocodile and Other Folktales From Indonesia retold by Alice Terada, Indonesian Children’s Favorite Stories retold by Joan Suyanega, Balinese Children’s Favorite Stories retold by Victor Mason and Gillian Beal.
In conclusion, it is found, that through analyses of the Indonesian cultural elements used in the books which are constructed to establish the description of the “other”, the representation of Indonesia in books for children and young adult are highly homogenous which reiterate the western (the occident) ideas about the orient.