Ayu Utami

Ayu Utami (born 21 November 1968) is an Indonesian writer who

Ayu Utami
has written novels, short-stories, and articles. Saman (1998) is
widely considered her masterpiece. It was translated into English
by Pamela Allen in 2005. By writing about sex and politics, Utami
addressed issues formerly forbidden to Indonesian women, a
change referred to as sastra wangi.[1][2][3]

Background
Utami was born in Bogor and grew up in the Indonesian capital,
Jakarta. She obtained her bachelor's degree from the University of
Indonesia, where she studied Russian language and literature.
During her college years she began publishing reports and essays
in newspapers. In 1990, she was selected as a finalist in Wajah
Femina, a beauty pageant in Indonesia. However, she did not
pursue a modelling career because of her dislike of cosmetics and
make-up. She has been a journalist for Indonesian magazines,
Utami at the International
including Humor, Matra, Forum Keadilan, and D&R. Shortly
Conference on Feminism, 2016
after Suharto banned three magazines in 1994 (Tempo, Editor, and
Detik) during the New Order era, Ayu joined Aliansi Jurnalis Born 21 November 1968
Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists) to protest the Bogor, Indonesia
ban.[4] She continued her journalistic work underground, which Occupation Writer, journalist
included the anonymous publication of a black book on corruption Language Indonesian
in the Suharto regime.
Education University of
Utami's first novel, Saman, appeared in 1998, only a few weeks Indonesia
before the fall of Suharto, helping to signal the changing cultural Period 1990s–present
and political landscape in Indonesia. The novel won the Jakarta Genre Novel, essay
Arts Council's first prize that year and caused a sensation, and
Subject Authoritarianism,
controversy, among Indonesian artists and intellectuals.[5] It was
acclaimed by many reviews and was considered a new milestone women's liberation,
in Indonesian literature. Saman won the Prince Claus Award. It has sexuality
sold over 100,000 copies and been reprinted 34 times.[6] The Literary Reformasi, sastra
sequel to Saman, Larung was published in 2001.[7] movement wangi
Notable Saman
Ayu Utami currently works for Radio 68H, an independent news works
radio station that is broadcast all over the country, and as a writer Notable Sayembara (novel)
for the cultural journal Kalam and in Teater Utan Kayu in Jakarta. awards Dewan Kesenian
Her play and book protesting against anti-pornography legislation, Jakarta
Pengadilan Susila (Susila's Trial), appeared in 2008. Kusala Sastra
Khatulistiwa
Saman Prince Claus Award
In Saman, Ayu Utami weaves together the twin stories of Indonesian
feminist awakening and resistance to neo-colonial policies that devastated
farmers and villagers during the Suharto era. The structure of the novel is
complex, moving backwards and forwards in time from the 1990s to the
1980s and 1960s and among a variety of narrative points of view.

Saman provides an important critique of the New Order, which was

overthrown by students and workers in 1998. Coming out from under the
censorship of Suharto, Ayu Utami's novel is a daring expose of truths that
could not be previously told. Its candid and celebratory treatment of new
freedoms for women, including sexual freedom, were dramatic innovations
when they appeared.

Utami treats social taboos in an open way, thereby breaking Utami in 2002
with Indonesian literature to date. She writes freely about love
and sexuality and picks up the difficult relationship between
Muslims and Christians as a central theme – as well as the
hatred towards the Chinese minority. . . . Utami's prose is lively
and modern, and as such reflects the richness of the Indonesian
oral tradition. The author masterfully switches between various
narrative perspectives, locations and time scales, links dream
sequences and old myths with descriptions of the political and
societal relations in Indonesia in the 1990s[4]

Barbara Hatley argues that "a key 'innovation' of the text [Saman] is its subversion of long-standing
conventions of female representation and women's writing in Indonesia, and of the concepts of womanly
nature and gender relations in which these conventions are grounded."[8]

"Writing as Negating"
On 26 October 2005 Ayu Utami participated in a panel discussion on the topic "Why I Write What I Write"
at the Iowa City Public Library, sponsored by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program.[9]
Her opening sentence states: "The beginning period of my fiction writing was probably a sort of adolescent
struggle to negate the father figure." This figure, as the novels demonstrate, includes a variety of patriarchal
social structures and institutions, literary conventions, and regimes such as that of former dictator
Suharto.[10]

Pengadilan Susila (Susila's Trial)

In March 2008, Utami published Pengadilan Susila (Susila's Trial), based on the script of her theatre play
Sidang Susila, co-authored by veteran playwright Agus Noor. According to The Jakarta Post, "Ayu
considers her new book a weapon to fight against the morality movement and regulations that violate
women's rights." [11] The theatre piece and book grew out of Utami's involvement in protests against a
proposed anti-pornography bill being discussed by the Indonesian House of Representatives. In an article
covering the play's production by Yogyakarta's noted theatre troupe Teater Gandrik, actor Butet
Kartaredjasa said the play exposed the camouflaged moral truths that the Constitution tries to enforce:
"Sidang Susila hints at the dark shadows of an authoritarian regime that acts under the name of morality." A
summary of the play goes like this:
 Sidang Susila begins with the impact of the enforcement of the Law on Decency on the public.
In the play, those believed to have violated decency are arrested by the authorities, including
Susila, who is played by veteran actor Susilo Nugroho. The play then centrs on Susila, who is
put behind bars, powerless, by the state authorities. Susila is accused of "committing"
pornography for baring his large "breasts" in public, therefore violating the new law passed by
the political elite. In fact, he is only a poor hawker of children's toys and has committed no
wrong. The arresting officer in the play ignores Susila's claims that he is in fact a man, and that
his chest is enlarged due to a tumor. Susila is then incarcerated and tried. It is here that the
rulers act arbitrarily. The official interrogation report is made by force and the court
proceedings are directed to cater to the rulers' wishes.[12]

Works
Saman, KPG, Jakarta, 1998. Trans. English by Pamela Allen, 2005 and published by
Equinox Publishing, Jakarta
Larung, 2002
Si Parasit Lajang (an Essay Compilation), GagasMedia, Jakarta, 2003
Cerita Cinta Enrico KPG, Jakarta, 2012
Pengakuan Eks Parasit Lajang
Bilangan Fu, Jakarta 2008
Manjali dan Cakra Birawa, KPG, Jakarta 2010. ISBN 978-979-91-0260-7
Lalita
Pengadilan Susila (Susila's Trial)
Ruma Maida (Maida's House; 2009; as screenwriter)

Honors and awards

1st Prize of Jakarta Arts Council Novel Competition 1998
Prince Claus Award 2000

References
1. Janssen, Peter (19 October 2003). "Indonesia's Literary Ladies" (http://www.thedailybeast.co
m/newsweek/2003/10/19/indonesia-s-literary-ladies.html). Newsweek Magazine. The Daily
Beast. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
2. Sulton, Agus (1 April 2010). "Sastra Wangi Aroma Selangkangan" (http://oase.kompas.com/r
ead/2010/04/01/01481963/Sastra.Wangi.Aroma.Selangkangan). Kompas.com (in
Indonesian). Retrieved 18 December 2011.
3. Tiojakin, Maggie (29 March 2010). "Change, she wrote" (http://www.thejakartapost.com/new
s/2010/03/29/change-she-wrote.html). Jakarta Post. Retrieved 18 December 2011.
4. Culturebase.net | The international artist database | Utami Ayu (http://www.culturebase.net/ar
tist.php?3541) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20161028071956/http://www.cultureba
se.net/artist.php?3541) 28 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine
5. See Barbara Hatley, "New Directions in Indonesian Women's Writing? The Novel Saman.
Asian Studies Review (1999), 23:4. 449–61
 6. Ayu Utami (Indonesia) Time of the Writer Festival 2006 (http://www.ukzn.ac.za/cca/images/to
w/TOW2006/bios/Utami.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080417073350/http://
www.ukzn.ac.za/cca/images/tow/TOW2006/bios/Utami.htm) 17 April 2008 at the Wayback
Machine
7. PEN American Center – Ayu Utami (http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1151) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20080508011453/http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/1151) 8 May
2008 at the Wayback Machine
8. Hatley, p. 450
9. Why I Write (http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:VXbs6Tox-30J:iwp.uiowa.edu/news/eve
nt-docs/Utami_Why_I_write.pdf+%22Ayu+Utami%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=us&lr=lang_
en&client=safari)
10. Hatley writes that "Throughout the New Order period an ongoing association was intimated
between controlled female behaviour and overall social order and, conversely, between
female assertiveness, radical politics and threatened subversion of such order. The
authoritarian political system was justified as essential to social control, and defined in terms
of indigenous Indonesian family structures, with the President as father of the state." Hatley,
p. 452
11. Ayu Utami releases new book | The Jakarta Post (http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/
03/02/ayu-utami-releases-new-book.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/201603040
00757/http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/03/02/ayu-utami-releases-new-book.html) 4
March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
12. Teater Gandrik Returns: Yogyakarta, Central Java | Indonesia Logue (http://www.indonesialo
gue.com/destinations/teater-gandrik-returns-yogyakarta-central-java.html) Archived (https://w
eb.archive.org/web/20160303220429/http://www.indonesialogue.com/destinations/teater-ga
ndrik-returns-yogyakarta-central-java.html) 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

External links
Utan Kayu artists and writers collective (https://web.archive.org/web/20111010212951/http://
www.utankayu.org/)
(in Indonesian) Apa dan Siapa PDAT (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927014522/http://w
ww.pdat.co.id/hg/apasiapa/html/A/ads%2C20030701-88%2CA.html)
(in Indonesian) Biography in Potret in Intisari Magazine 1998 (https://web.archive.org/web/20
070314000023/http://www.indomedia.com/intisari/1998/september/sex.htm)
(in Indonesian) Biography in CBN (https://web.archive.org/web/20060822042832/http://cyber
man.cbn.net.id/face2.asp?postid=9)

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