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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed September 27, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Ron Strickland (chair), Rebecca Saunders, Lynn Worsham. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-152) and abstract. Also available in print.

The present thesis is a study of one of Motinggo Busye's numerous popular novels, Anna Soen Nio (1984). The key analytical concepts selected here are social discourse, interdiscursivity, and intertextuality. The main argument running throughout the thesis is that Anna Soen Nio is a narrative reworking of contemporaneous debates, pervasive in Indonesian society, on Indonesian identities: Muslimhood, Indonesian-ness (especially Minangkabau-ness), and Chineseness. / The introduction contains an overview of the sociocritical approach as well as a preliminary discussion on Indonesian social discourse. Chapter 1 discusses the contemporary position of the Sino-Indonesians as a minority group with a complex status. / Chapter 2 presents an overview of Motinggo Busye's life and works as well as an analysis of paratextual elements related to Anna Soen Nio. / Chapter 3 is a narratological analysis of M. Busye's novel. / Chapters 4 and 5 are closely related: they both focus on the novel's ideological discourse on Indonesian identities. In chapter 4, this is done at the level of the novel's personal onomastics (characters' names). Chapter 5 uses another sociocritical tool, the sociogram, in order to decipher the "image of the Chinese" in Anna Soen Nio and stress its interdiscursive and intertextual character. / In the conclusion, Lotman's concept of the hero is used to show that the novel's hero is not its eponymous character. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This poetry collection explores the concept of memory as a function of identity and is based on the ten years or so that I spent living and working in Islamic countries during the 1970s and 1980s. It is an attempt to create a record of a life lived in unfamiliar territories where cultural and social norms are very different from those with which I was brought up. The collection comprises four sections, each having a distinct character, attributable in part to the use of poetic forms chosen to complement specific periods and places. I experimented with haibun, haiku and prose poetry as well as free verse to achieve the desired effect. Themes of memory, place, people and social comment are woven throughout this collection to create a sense of unity within the whole. The accompanying critical essay, 'Writing Mindful of Ghosts', considers the processes involved in such a venture and refers to some of the poets whose work interests and inspires me, as well as offering information on the places and times that informed the poems.

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The precarious relationship between Islam and art remains a moot question. The banning of a short story, a novel, a theatrical play, a film, a poem or any other kind of artistic enterprise is an attestation of such a crucial reference. Exploring the relation of Islam and literature, with Indonesian Islam as a background, this thesis will examine the short story Langit Makin Mendung written by Kipankjikusmin. / Langit Makin Mendung, which was published in August 1968 in the magazine Sastra, was condemned by the majority of Indonesian Muslims, for it was considered to be blasphemous, insulting God, the Prophet, the archangels, the 'ulama' and the kiyai (traditional scholars), and it was judged to be in contravention of the Constitution of '45. In terms of the public reaction to Langit Makin Mendung, the critiques concern three aspects: legal, literary and religious views. / Apart from such views, the thesis also examines Islamic teachings on intellectual freedom and on freedom of speech. It will be shown that the political turbulence that occurred during the Old Order regime, especially in the era of the so-called Guided Democracy, and that the Communist movement of the 1960s are foremost among the influences on the milieu in which this short story was written. In addition to the socio-political context, this thesis assesses the theological aspect which focuses on the significant connection of the Islamic Weltanschauung and literature as an indicator of the status on freedom of literary expression in a Muslim society. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

While much attention has been paid to the events which followed the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses (1988), there has been little detailed examination of the role of Islam in that novel and in the rest of Salman Rushdie's fiction, notably Midnight's Children (1981) and Shame (1983). His portrayals of Islam and Islamic societies are not easily recognizable via the traditional structures of the academic study of Islam. His divergence from the vast majority of Muslim tradition and experience can be seen firstly through his own experiences in India, England, and Pakistan; and secondly through his provocative literary exploration of religious beliefs, something which has few precedents in the history of Islam. By using Islamic elements and symbols in the same way that Western literatures have explored religious themes, Rushdie presents irreverent satire and often scathing criticism of many aspects of Muslim societies and culture. The most significant aspect of this critique is the attempt to subvert what Mohammed Arkoun called "Islamic logocentrism," the tendency to confine all discourse about Islam to a certain narrow field of textual interpretation. Rushdie's treatment of religion is informed by an ideal which sees reading and writing for one's own purposes to be the highest form of spiritual exercise, and when Islam is subordinated to the writer's imagination, he has little reason to uphold the authority or sanctity of its precepts, principles, or history.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Robin Goodman, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 13, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 165 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

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