Imagery, Fantasy, and Fiction: Magical Realism in Indonesian Literature
Abstract:
Literature is often regarded as a mere reflection of socio-cultural life. In fact, literature actually creates its own world, which ignores social-cultural boundaries and fantasy. Therefore, this research aims to reveal the representation of imagery, fantasy, and fiction in the context of magical realism in the novel Mustika Zakar Celeng by Adia Puja. This research uses a qualitative method with three focus approaches, namely semiotics, content analysis, and hermeneutics. The data source is the novel Mustika Zakar Celeng by Adia Puja. Data collection is done by reading, recording, and coding techniques. The result of this research is that Adia Puja’s novel Mustika Zakar Celeng is an aesthetic form of art created by the human creative process. This novel raises sexual issues in rural communities as well. The issue of sex causes social polemics, which leads to the loss of gender boundaries, ethics, and logic. By combining elements of reality and fantasy, the novel presents an absurd socio-cultural phenomenon of Sundanese society. The confluence of fact and myth results in the novel creating an "The Other" world. Because of the infinite relationship, the novel is a representation of imagination that blurs the boundaries between fact/myth, logic/fantasy, realism/magic, which are built from social reality and fiction. For this reason, an important implication of this research is that literary works can be a means of connecting interdisciplinary studies, to understand the complexity of socio-cultural dynamics in narrative texts.
KeyWords:
magical realism; mustika zakar celeng; adia puja; wendy b. faris; fantasy realism
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