Description
The first four decades of the national art theater in Indonesia (1926-1965) were a period of fascinating experimentation undertaken by elite intellectuals heavily influenced by, and attempting to come to terms with, the forms and styles of western theater. These experiments ranged chiefly from hybrid anti-colonial allegories and grand historical epics to psychological and social realisms. The present volume contains a selection of dramas representative of this exciting and pivotal era in the construction of Indonesia's modern national art theater. It begins with nationalist allegories, then moves to psychological and social-realist works. The plays at the end of the period covered by this volume will later influence a new direction of theater; a new dominant current of drama that would flow into the New Order period, beginning in 1966.
About the Author
Michael Bodden (Editor) Michael Bodden earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993 and has taught at the University of Victoria, Department of Pacific and Asian Studies since 1992. He has written numerous articles on Indonesian literature, Indonesian, Philippine, and Southeast Asian theatre, and Indonesian popular culture. He recently published Resistance on the National Stage: Theatre and Politics in Late New Order Indonesia.John H. McGlynn (Editor) John H. McGlynn has translated several dozen publications under his own name, and through the Lontar Foundation, which he co-founded in 1987, has ushered into print close to two hundred books on Indonesian language, literature, and culture. He is the Indonesian country editor for MĀNOA, a literary journal published by the University of Hawai'i Press; the senior editor for I-Lit, an on-line journal focusing on Indonesian literature in translation; a contributing editor to Words Without Borders and Warscapes, U.S. based literary journals; and an editor advisor for Jurnal Sastra, an Indonesian-language on-line journal. He is also a frequent speaker at seminars both in Indonesia and abroad.
