Maren Wilger & Yusuf Pratama (Berlin): Sundelbolong as a mirror of State Ibuism? - Analysis of popular Ghost movies in Indonesia (original) (raw)

Abstract

Conference: Ghost-Movies in Southeast Asia and Beyond. Narratives, cultural contexts, audiences. at BMBF Competence Network "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia", Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Göttingen. 03.10.2012 - 06.10.2012, Göttingen. Sundelbolong, a gruesome furious female ghost with a hole on her back, originates from Javanese tradition. A woman transforms into Sundelbolong when she commits suicide during her pregnancy (Siddique, 2002). Her revengeful spirit seeks justice by viciously slaughtering her rapists. Analysing two films from Indonesia, Sundelbolong (1981) and its remake Sundel Bolong (2009), this paper aims to underline the representation of woman, -or womanhood-, during the New Order and post-Authoritarian regime. Against the hegemonic ideology of Indonesian New Order, which Suryakusuma (1996) describes as a regime of State Ibuism -State of Motherhood- as cultural and structural mean of the state to control its female population, this paper should ask furthermore whether woman represented as Sundelbolong embodies this propagated state ideology? Or does it question, reject and propose another possible model? How did this representation change in its remake, almost decade after the fall of New Order regime? Is it possible to think of Sundelbolong as symbolizing image of a/any subaltern position of women within the ever contested imagined Indonesia? Siddique, Sophie (2002). “Haunting Visions of the Sundelbolong. Vampire Ghosts and the Indonesian National Imaginary”, in: Harmony Wu (edt.). Axes to Grind: Re-Imagining the Horrific in Visual Media and Culture. Special Issue of Spectator 22:2 (Fall 2002) 24-33. 24. http://cinema.usc.edu/assets/098/15878.pdf [13.05.12] Suryakusuma, Julia (1996) „State and Sexuality in New Order Indonesia.“, in: Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia, editor:

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