Space and Ambiguity in the Javanese Novel

Abstract

A striking feature of narrative in the Javanese novel is the prominence it gives to certain spatial categories. The Javanese novel seems to be shaped, structurally and thematically, almost wholly by reference to a grid of spaces embracing the Javanese domestic dwelling and its surrounds. The house is a richly diverse yet rigidly organised microcosm. Its structures seem, on the face of it, to be homologous with those of Javanese society and the Javanese thought world at large, and through those structures the Javanese author speaks with the special authority of one who is on home ground.