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Javanese Shadow Plays, Javanese Selves
As with many performing arts in Asia, neither the highly stylized images of the Javanese shadow play nor its musical complexity detracts from its wide popularity. By a context-sensitive analysis of shadow-play performances, Ward Keeler shows that they fascinate so many people in Java because they dramatize consistent Javanese concerns about potency, status, and speech.
Originally published in 1987.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Originally published in 1987.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
- GenresAnthropology
282 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 17, 2017
"We are no other than a moving row of magic shadow shapes that come and go"....O. Khayyam
Thinking about and interpreting a performing art which belongs to a very different culture is full of difficulties. Nothing can be taken for granted. But the task is interesting. Clifford Geertz, who influenced the writer here, was instrumental in starting a process of anthropology in which social life is taken as either a drama or a text which says something to the performers as well as the spectators. To understand this statement fully you could find his "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight". Certain cultural performances may epitomize the values and expectations of a society. Keeler's book is a very deep venture into the ramifications of this idea, taking as his "text" wayang kulit, all-night puppet shows in Java performed behind a screen on which shadows appear. In order to understand why Javanese like their shadow puppet plays so much and why they respect the puppeteers (dhalang), he spends the first half of the book trying to explain Javanese world view.
The idea of "a powerful man" (women are more or less excluded from this category) in Java differs extraordinarily from our own. A powerful man in Java traditionally is remote, uninvolved in daily struggle, in touch with spiritual or mystic powers, generous, but non-demanding, uninterested in material things, and thus endowed with mystic potency. His speech and demeanor are always refined, his looks pale, thin, and delicate. John Wayne would definitely be a clown. Nobody but a king (now extremely scarce in Java [!]) can perfectly embody such a character, such a model is only exemplary. People must recognize a potent man as such, or he is not one. They recognize him not by what he does, not his physical power, but by the respect that he commands by virtue of his behavior---or we can say, the impression he makes on those around him.
"The peculiar fascination of the dhalang in Javanese culture stems from the fact that he is at once a remote authority, one whose power is great, non-coercive, and unworldly....one who mediates between an unreal but persuasive and distracting world [the wayang performance] and our own." (p.268) He is powerful because in some way he resembles powerful men or derives potency from his performances. His successful all-night performance may bring luck to the sponsors, but more important, he "presents" and exemplifies the models of power.
In a most impressive book, Keeler slowly and in great detail explains his ideas on the linkage of wayang kulit and Javanese personality and attitudes to the world. The first four chapters deal with Javanese ideas of self and interpersonal relations, potency and speech. Chapter five describes the network of relations between sponsors of shows, their assistants, and guests at any ritual celebration in Java. Then he applies the conclusions of these chapters to the wayang itself. I won't say that this is easy reading. It involves a lot of thought. But if you can stay the course, wading through some very arcane detail of performances and puppet characters, you will, I believe, admire the very thorough, thoughtful and ingenious treatment of a difficult subject
Thinking about and interpreting a performing art which belongs to a very different culture is full of difficulties. Nothing can be taken for granted. But the task is interesting. Clifford Geertz, who influenced the writer here, was instrumental in starting a process of anthropology in which social life is taken as either a drama or a text which says something to the performers as well as the spectators. To understand this statement fully you could find his "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight". Certain cultural performances may epitomize the values and expectations of a society. Keeler's book is a very deep venture into the ramifications of this idea, taking as his "text" wayang kulit, all-night puppet shows in Java performed behind a screen on which shadows appear. In order to understand why Javanese like their shadow puppet plays so much and why they respect the puppeteers (dhalang), he spends the first half of the book trying to explain Javanese world view.
The idea of "a powerful man" (women are more or less excluded from this category) in Java differs extraordinarily from our own. A powerful man in Java traditionally is remote, uninvolved in daily struggle, in touch with spiritual or mystic powers, generous, but non-demanding, uninterested in material things, and thus endowed with mystic potency. His speech and demeanor are always refined, his looks pale, thin, and delicate. John Wayne would definitely be a clown. Nobody but a king (now extremely scarce in Java [!]) can perfectly embody such a character, such a model is only exemplary. People must recognize a potent man as such, or he is not one. They recognize him not by what he does, not his physical power, but by the respect that he commands by virtue of his behavior---or we can say, the impression he makes on those around him.
"The peculiar fascination of the dhalang in Javanese culture stems from the fact that he is at once a remote authority, one whose power is great, non-coercive, and unworldly....one who mediates between an unreal but persuasive and distracting world [the wayang performance] and our own." (p.268) He is powerful because in some way he resembles powerful men or derives potency from his performances. His successful all-night performance may bring luck to the sponsors, but more important, he "presents" and exemplifies the models of power.
In a most impressive book, Keeler slowly and in great detail explains his ideas on the linkage of wayang kulit and Javanese personality and attitudes to the world. The first four chapters deal with Javanese ideas of self and interpersonal relations, potency and speech. Chapter five describes the network of relations between sponsors of shows, their assistants, and guests at any ritual celebration in Java. Then he applies the conclusions of these chapters to the wayang itself. I won't say that this is easy reading. It involves a lot of thought. But if you can stay the course, wading through some very arcane detail of performances and puppet characters, you will, I believe, admire the very thorough, thoughtful and ingenious treatment of a difficult subject
May 14, 2015
lumayan.
tapi ndak ada yang "baru" dalam memandang peran dalang.
tapi ndak ada yang "baru" dalam memandang peran dalang.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews