The Self, The Other, and The World: Narratological Construction of Subjectivity in Indonesian Travel Literature on Europe after Reformasi

Abstract

Travel literature is a rapidly growing literary genre, one that has gained a crucial position in Indonesian literature. Several internal circumstances have marked this growth: publications have increased sharply, fruitful forms and subgenres have emerged, and remediation of these genres has been widespread. Externally, globalization—which has made traveling a lifestyle for Indonesians—has also driven this phenomenon. In this context, contemporary Indonesian travel literature is also an adequate site for exploring the subjectivity of Indonesian travel writers. In this research, subjectivity is described based mainly on travel writers' motivation for their journey and their narrative choices when conveying their stories. This dissertation also deals with how cultural production reveals the narrative construction of the image of the Indonesian traveler as a Self who encounters the Other in Europe (as the World) and the interdependency between them, which responds to and is shaped by historical factors—especially the relations between Indonesia and Europe, which are marked by colonization, decolonization, and globalization. Using the concepts of narratology and subjectivity, as well as the postcolonial approach, this research seeks to achieve three objectives: the development of Indonesian travel literature since the early twentieth century; the narrative structure of contemporary Indonesian travel literature; and travel writers' construction of subjectivity through their representations of the Self, the Other, and the world as the consequence of colonial and globalization discourses. For these purposes, ten works of travel literature, mostly those published in the past decade, were selected as a sample. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds and are driven by diverse motivations; this is intended to provide a wide sample, allowing a great range of perspectives on and characteristics of the subject to be represented. This research explores the interrelation between the diverse narratives and motivations that have emerged since the earliest works of travel writing were produced in the Indonesian archipelago. It shows that the genre has had periods of growth and glory, which are also related to the ideological shifts and cultural developments in Indonesia. Moreover, this research identifies three different narratological types in contemporary Indonesian travel literature: the travelogue type, the diary/biographical type, and the novelesque type. Each of these types, which are distinguished by their narrative elements (order, speed, frequency, mood, and voice), falls on a spectrum from the well-ordered to the complex. These different typologies affect the subjectivity portrayed through travel literature, and certain types are usually chosen to convey certain subjectivities. This research also identifies four subjectivities in Indonesian travel literature, which it deems santri lelana, caraka, peziarah, and pelanglang buana. The first searches for knowledge; the second recounts travel as part of a diplomatic and political mission; the third looks for physical and spiritual challenges as a pious pilgrim who carries a good and/or Godly mission to others and spreads positivity; and the last is a wanderer who is always mobile in a boundless world, one who often undertakes unscripted journeys and sometimes misadventures. These subjectivities are built on the tension between the desire to fix or consolidate an existing identity and the desire to change it, with the former being more pronounced. Regardless of the motivation that forms the subjectivity, the prior referential knowledge that exists in the travel writer's mind is always more dominant than any knowledge they may obtain during their journey, and it is often corroborated by their limited number of encounters. However, within the context of the postcolonial debate, the World—particularly Europe—in Indonesian contemporary travel literature provides a different background, one that is not binary (i.e., West–East or Europe–Asia) but rather hybrid and diverse.