Women's identities and resistance in Pramoedya Ananta Toer's The Girl from the Coast and

192 Pages·2013·1.15 MB·English

University of Wollongong
Research Online
University of Wollongong Thesis Collection University of Wollongong Thesis Collections
2012
Women’s identities and resistance in Pramoedya
Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast and
Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Coonardoo
Ida Puspita
University of Wollongong
Recommended Citation
Puspita, Ida, Women’s identities and resistance in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast and Katharine Susannah
Prichard’s Coonardoo, thesis, School of English Literatures and Philosophy, University of Wollongong, 2012. http://ro.uow.edu.au/
theses/3790
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School of English Literatures and Philosophy

Faculty of Arts

Women’s Identities and Resistance

in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast

and Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Coonardoo

Ida Puspita

This thesis is presented as part of the requirements for the award of the Degree
of Masters by Research
of the
University of Wollongong

November 2012
CERTIFICATION

I, Ida Puspita, declare that this thesis, submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of Masters by Research, in the School of English Literature and
Philosophy, University of Wollongong, is wholly my own work unless otherwise
referenced or acknowledge. The document has not been submitted for
qualifications at any other institution.

Ida Puspita

12 November 2012
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CERTIFICATION ........................................................................................................ i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................ 26
Authors’ Lives and Work ........................................................................................... 26
Authors’ lives ......................................................................................................... 27
Pramoedya Ananta Toer ..................................................................................... 27
Katharine Susannah Prichard ............................................................................. 30
Authors’ work ........................................................................................................ 34
Political alignment ................................................................................................. 38
Postcolonial concern .............................................................................................. 44
The general concept of identity .......................................................................... 54
The concept of resistance ................................................................................... 58
The concept of subalternity ................................................................................ 61
Gender awareness .................................................................................................. 65
Women in a patriarchal postcolonial society ..................................................... 71
CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................... 76
Javanese and Aboriginal Women’s Representation in Indonesia and Australia........ 76
Images of Indonesian (Javanese) women ............................................................... 76
Images of Australian (Aboriginal) women ............................................................ 84
CHAPTER THREE .................................................................................................... 93
Women’s Identity and Resistance in The Girl From the Coast ................................. 93
Plot Summary of The Girl ...................................................................................... 93
Women’s representation in The Girl ...................................................................... 95
Women’s resistance in The Girl ........................................................................... 116
CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................... 131
Women’s Identity and Resistance in Coonardoo .................................................... 131
Plot Summary of Coonardoo ............................................................................... 131
Women’s representation in Coonardoo ............................................................... 133
Women’s Resistance in Coonardoo ..................................................................... 158
ii
CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................... 167
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 175
iii
ABSTRACT

This thesis compares representation and resistance of Javanese and Aboriginal
women depicted in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The Girl from the Coast and Katharine
Susannah Prichard’s Coonardoo. The thesis argues that colonisation in patriarchal
Indonesia and Australia intensifies women’s subordination. While there is a huge
difference between the colonial histories of these countries as well as between the
cultures of Javanese and Aborigines, patriarchal and colonial experiences resonate
quite similarly. The thesis shows how two dissimilar contexts can be brought into
dialogue by applying a feminist-postcolonial theoretical frame to both novels.
General concepts of identity, resistance, and subalternity are employed to investigate
how female characters deal with identity construction and subjugation in these
patriarchal colonial systems. In the novels commoner and Aborigine become almost,
but not quite ‘members’ of the dominant group. Yet, no matter how thoroughly they
are immersed and ‘expert’ in what is expected of them, they will always be
considered second class. The thesis shows that at some points, the main female
characters show compliance but in their own particular ways they also challenge this
domination. The resistance of the Girl toward upper-class’ values is stronger than
Coonardoo’s toward the white values. Pramoedya writes about Javanese women as a
Javanese, yet Prichard’s white background limits her ability to champion the
Aboriginal cause and to depict a resistant character.
iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An uncommon comparative literature project between Indonesia and Australia
such as this could never been undertaken without the help and support of a number
of people and institution. I would like to begin by thanking my supervisors,
A/Professor Tony Simoes da Silva, A/Professor Paul Sharrad and Professor
Philip Kitley, for their unfailing support and insightful criticism to shape my ill-
informed ideas and confused-writing in spite of their very busy teaching,
supervising and research commitments. I could not have hoped for better
supervision.
My candidature was also made possible by AusAid that has granted me an
Australian Development Scholarship (ADS) to allow me to complete my Masters by
Research program in the School of English Literatures and Philosophy, at the
University of Wollongong. I would like also to thank the Faculty of Arts for
funding my participation in the Association for the Study of Australian Literature
conference in New Zealand in 2012. My thanks also go to my institution, Ahmad
Dahlan University, which has given me a chance to study at the University of
Wollongong.
Finally, I would like also to acknowledge my husband and son, Nur Rifai
Akhsan and Naufal Hekmatyar Akhsan whose love, companionship and belief
indeed have supported me to finish my thesis. My sincere thanks also to my family:
Bapak, Mama, siblings, parents-in-law, brother and sister-in-law for their prayers
and encouragement. I would like also to extend my gratitude to my friends: Hujuala
Rika Ayu for giving me an ‘online’ support in the early stage of my thesis writing
and Thi Thanh Nga Pham who is always there when I need an ear to listen (I would
not have been that brave to stay in the postgraduate office up to 10 pm so often if
Nga had not been there writing her thesis too).

v
INTRODUCTION

This thesis is particularly aimed at revealing that colonisation in Indonesia and
Australia intensifies women’s subordination. This study harnesses postcolonial and
feminist critical theories to analyse women’s identity formation and resistance in the
novels of two prominent authors, Indonesian Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s The
Girl from the Coast (he is typically referred to by his first name) and Australian
Katharine Susannah Prichard’s Coonardoo. Both texts deal with cultural clash that
results from patriarchal and colonial practices, and in each work both authors depict
how women negotiate with this double subjugation. Neither the authors nor their
narratives can ever be separated from the historical and social backgrounds of where
they came from. So, by bringing together these two differently located literary
texts together, the nature of identity and resistance in each case can be identified and
evaluated.
Indonesia and Australia were both colonised by European countries,
namely the Netherlands and Britain respectively. The first Dutch expedition to
Indonesia (East Indies) arrived in 1596 in search of spices. Soon after, Ricklefs says
that the conflicts among Dutch companies led the States-General (Netherlands
parliament) to merge the companies into the United East India Company, the VOC
(Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) in 1602. The States-General granted the
VOC ‘quasi- sovereign power’ to recruit armies, build fortresses, wage war and
negotiate treaties in Asia including the islands now known as Indonesia (Ricklefs,
2008: 29-30). Merle Calvin Ricklefs further claims that a Dutch colonial state was
consolidated over the period from 1800 to 1910. The Javanese-European
relationships took a new form when Marshal Herman Willem Daendels, Governor
1
General in Batavia in 1808, “treated Javanese lords not as lords over their society
but as officials of the European administration and reduced their power and
incomes” (135). Moreover, even though Indonesia proclaimed its independence in
1945, the Dutch only recognized the formal transfer of sovereignty to the ‘Republik
Indonesia Serikat’ (Republic of United States of Indonesia) in 1949.
Australia was ruled by the British from 26 January 1788, the date when
Captain Arthur Philip arrived in New South Wales and “carried instruction to
establish the first British colony in Australia”, the land that was called ‘Terra
Australis Incognita (unknown southern land)’.1 However, Ann Curthoys suggests
that at that time Aboriginal peoples had settled the entire continent for around
45,000 years. They had diverse languages, dialects, and “each society was
multilingual” (in Schreuder and Ward, 2008: 79). Even though the six British
colonies federated as the Australian nation in 1901, many so-called Australians still
saw themselves as British; furthermore, attitudes and policies concerning Indigenous
peoples in Australia remained colonialist (96-97). The fact that the Dutch left
Indonesia after independence is a major difference between the colonisation of
Indonesia and that of Australia. Australia remains technically connected to its
colonial power, although after 1901 the colonial British became settler Australians.
The English monarch remains the official Head of State.
It is arguable, however, that having been colonised by European countries,
the literatures of Indonesia and Australia do reflect similar patterns of experience.
It is well known too that not only did colonisation create physical and mental
sufferings for the colonised people, but it also changed the physical landscape of the

1 Anonymous, ‘European discovery and the colonization of Australia’, accessed 21 June 2011
http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/european-discovery-and- colonisation
2