A number of studies of Bali emerging in the last three decades have come to read Balinese culture as a cultural construct that has been invented and reinvented as a means to legitimate power relations on the island (e.g. Schulte Nordholt 1986, 1996, 1999; Vickers 1990; Picard 1996, 1999). Constructions of ‘Balinese culture’ have been explored and identified as central projects within the island’s internal contestation of dominance as well as within the establishment of colonial and postcolonial orders. Despite this scholarly exploration of the discursive nature of ‘authentic Balinese culture’, public obsession with a traditional Balinese architecture, conceived as an apolitical, exotic, and pre-existing architectural other, prevails. Architecture has been and continues to be an arena within which the notion of authentic Bali is convincingly authorised by its diverse proponents: the Dutch colonial government, the orientalist scholars, the travellers, the architects, and the local elites.This thesis explores the role of architectural discourses within the construction of identity in 20th century Bali. It investigates the way writings on Bali’s architecture and contemporary formations of domestic architecture on the island are implicated by the political imagining of an ‘authentic Balinese’ cultural identity. Invoking the architecture of Balinisation, this thesis argues that writings and domestic architectural realms are productive fields in which and by which identity and power relations are continuously formulated by those who observe Bali and by the observed ‘Balinese’ people.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/245405 |
| Creators | Achmadi, Amanda |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Terms and Conditions: Copyright in works deposited in the University of Melbourne Eprints Repository (UMER) is retained by the copyright owner. The work may not be altered without permission from the copyright owner. Readers may only, download, print, and save electronic copies of whole works for their own personal non-commercial use. Any use that exceeds these limits requires permission from the copyright owner. Attribution is essential when quoting or paraphrasing from these works., Open Access |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds