Finding Feminist Literary Reading: Portrayals Of Women In The 1920s Indonesian Literary Writings

Abstract: Modern Indonesian literature can be said to be born around 1920s with the publication of modern Indonesian literary works by Balai Pustaka. Amongst the works published by Balai Pustaka in the 1920s ; there are most popular works namely Sitti Nurbaya (1922) ; Azab dan Sengsara(1927) and Salah Asuhan (1928) representing the tone of 1920s literary productions. This paper aims to look at images of women in those three works written by male authors ; using feminist literary criticism. By means of close reading technique; the study uses feminist literary criticism to examine and (re)examine the images of women portrayed in those three works. The finding shows that on one hand some women are still trapped with the shackle of patriarchy, but, on the other hand, some women are not simply passive victims of patriarchy: these women still attempt to escape from the patriarchal chain and cut out the patriarchal oppression.