Posisi Perempuan dalam Tempurung dan Ayu Manda: Dua Novel Karya Perempuan dan Laki?Laki Pengarang Bali

This article aims to describe the position of female characters in two novels written by Balinese writers, Tempurung and Ayu Manda, using feminist approach. Tempurung was written by a female writer, Oka Rusmini, whereas Ayu Manda is a work of I Made Iwan Darmawan. Both novels were published in 2010. The two novels were chosen for strongly presenting various woman issues. Gender exploitation as a sociocultural construction brings about discriminations. Ironically, ironically, those discriminations have been allowed because of a firm hegemony of tradition and social order of society. The issue is solidly and fast presented in the two novels. Tempurung depicts the women who are hegemonized by their culture and society. In Ayu Manda, which takes the setting of the 1960s, refusals toward discrimination have started to emerge. However, when a woman starts to talk about and be involved in love, she will face the power of custom and tradition ready to marginalize her body if they disagree with them. The result of the study shows that the women in the two novels are positioned as being of different sex so they have to be treated differently from man.