SULUK : Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, dan Budaya

Negotiating Colonial Memory and Cosmopolitan Intimacy: Gendered Subjectivity in Negeri Van Oranje’s Travel Narrative

Retno Tyas Hapsari — 2026-03-16

This article examines the negotiation of colonial memory and cosmopolitan intimacy through the gendered subjectivity of Lintang in the novel Negeri Van Oranje. Drawing on Debbie Lisle’s framework of travel writing as a politically saturated genre, the study argues that the narrative does not merely celebrate transnational mobility or intercultural romance. Instead, it demonstrates how these experiences are Uiltered through a hierarchy of value where Dutch spaces, white masculinity, and metropolitan institutions remain privileged signs of aspiration. Methodologically, the research employs a qualitative interpretive design combining close reading and discourse analysis of scenes involving desire, education, and romantic attachment. The Uindings reveal three signiUicant patterns: Uirst, colonial desire is internalized prior to departure through Lintang’s aspirations for a Dutch education and a foreign husband; second, the Dutch social world is consistently narrated as morally and institutionally superior; and third, while interactions with Uigures like Arbenita and Jeroen introduce a fragile cosmopolitan ethic, it remains partial and conditional. The study concludes that the novel stages a "pseudo-cosmopolitan" formation rather than an egalitarian one. In this framework, an apparent openness to difference coexists with the persistent reproduction of colonial hierarchies, positioning the European "Other" as a lingering site of authority.

Bakhtinian Carnivalesque and Gender Erasure in Ziggy Zezsyazeoviennazabrizkie’s Kering: Collective Child Voices and Communal Space

Diah Pitaloka — 2026-03-15

This article examines how Ziggy Zezsyazeoviennazabrizkie’s short story Kering constructs an alternative social world through the erasure of gender legibility, the centering of child characters, and the laundromat as a communal refuge. This study asks: (1) how the laundromat operates as a carnivalesque liminal chronotope; (2) how the collective first-person plural voice generates polyphony and shared child subjectivity; and (3) how voicelessness and bodily/identity anomalies mobilize grotesque realism to critique gendered structural violence. This research employs qualitative close reading supported by directed coding based on Bakhtinian carnivalesque theory (carnival “second life,” degradation/uncrowning, grotesque realism) and a gender-inclusive narrative perspective. Textual segments are coded across three analytic axes (space, voice, and body) then synthesized through interpretive content analysis. Kering stages the laundromat as a temporary egalitarian commons that suspends adult/patriarchal authority, enabling children’s communal life. The collective “we” voice distributes narrative agency across multiple child figures, producing polyphonic witnessing while weakening gender as a stable organizing category. Grotesque bodily imagery and motifs of voicelessness translate unspeakable harm into a material critique of structural violence, positioning gender erasure as a deliberate oppositional strategy rather than neutrality. The analysis focuses on a single short story; broader claims require comparative studies across contemporary Indonesian fiction and reader-reception research. The article integrates Bakhtinian carnivalesque, collective narration, and gender-inclusive reading to reframe children as modern subjects who contest normative gender and violence through form.

Sacred Temporality, Homecoming, and Religious Magical Realism in Danarto’s Indonesian Fiction Lailatul Qadar

Dzar Al Banna — 2026-03-15

This article examines how Danarto’s short story Lailatul Qadar transforms the culturally familiar experience of mudik (homecoming) into a religiously charged magical realist narrative. The study asks how the story constructs an empirically recognisable social world, how it introduces irreducible supernatural phenomena without collapsing into fantasy, and how its narrative form turns late-Ramadan mobility into a site of ontological uncertainty. This study adopts a qualitative textual case study grounded in close reading, document analysis, Wendy B. Faris’s theory of magical realism, and Gérard Genette’s narratology. The analysis focuses on five dimensions: the phenomenal world, irreducible magical elements, unsettling doubts, the merging of realms, and disruptions of time, space, and identity, while also tracing focalization, voice, temporal sequencing, and symbolic imagery. The findings show that Danarto does not merely append miracle to realism; he narratively fuses everyday piety, transport infrastructures, family intimacy, and sacred temporality into what this article terms religious remystification. Mudik appears not only as social mobility but as a threshold through which divine presence, angelic mediation, and spiritual testing become narratively legible. The article argues that Lailatul Qadar expands the discussion of magical realism in Indonesian literature by showing that its enchantment may emerge from Islamic sacred time rather than from folklore alone. It also demonstrates that intrinsic elements become analytically productive when read as narrative devices that organize religious ambiguity rather than as isolated formal components.

Naming, Blaming, Erasing: Van Leeuwen’s Recontextualization–Legitimation Matrix in Bratang Surabaya Coverage, 20 August 2025

Novia Adibatus Shofah — 2025-10-07

This study examines how nine Indonesian online outlets transformed the 20 August 2025 Taman Flora–Bratang traffic accident in Surabaya into stabilised news narratives. Using Theo van Leeuwen’s socio-semiotic framework and a mixed-methods Critical Discourse Analysis, we ask: (1) how actors, actions, time–space, purposes, and legitimations are added or removed; (2) how victims, the car/driver, police, and “road/space” are portrayed (naming, genericisation, activation/passivation, inclusion/exclusion); and (3) which authorisation, moral evaluation, rationalisation, and mythopoesis assign responsibility under breaking-news uncertainty. A parallel, convergent analysis treated sentences (including headlines) as units across nine same-day reports. Quantitatively, we tracked inclusion/exclusion, activation/passivation, gender marking, and legitimation types per sentence; qualitatively, we traced outlet-level patterns via a CDA Matrix, joint displays (actor × legitimation), and a recontextualisation flow. Double-coding (Cohen’s κ template) audited heuristic labels, with discrepancies resolved interpretively. Three recurring narrative packages emerged: (i) a police-led “two-motor” template that simplifies causality and backgrounds the car/driver; (ii) a BPBD-led procedural timeline that individualises the driver yet defers legal judgment; and (iii) a defensive naming-then-denial pattern specifying the car (even plate/model) while disassociating it via surface forensic cues. Early texts privilege authorisation (police/BPBD voice) and rationalisation (procedural/technical accounts); moral cues and mythopoetic framings surface subtly in headlines. Social-actor design personalises/feminises the deceased and functionalises authorities, pre-structuring responsibility maps.

Analisis Wacana Kritis terhadap Representasi Bansos di Indonesia: Pendekatan Berbasis Korpus

Fitria Habibatul Imamah — 2026-03-17

Social assistance (bansos) constitutes one of the key instruments in Indonesia’s poverty alleviation policies. However, beyond its role as a welfare intervention, bansos has also emerged as a complex social discourse encompassing issues of distribution, justice, political dynamics, and the abuse of power. This study aims to uncover the representation of bansos discourse in Indonesia by employing a corpus-based critical discourse analysis approach. The data utilized in this study is drawn from the LCC Indonesia 2023 corpus, comprising 573 million tokens across 43 texts, analyzed using the CQPweb software. A mixed-methods approach combining both quantitative and qualitative techniques through corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis was applied. The Qindings indicate that bansos is generally represented in a positive light, as a form of assistance and a solution to welfare-related issues. Nevertheless, the discourse also carries negative connotations, particularly in relation to corruption, political manipulation, and inequities in distribution.

Suara yang Dibungkam, Alam yang Dijinakkan dalam Bekisar Merah: Membaca Metafora Ayam Bekisar, Gender, dan Ekologi melalui Naratologi Genette

Rafi Ferdiansyah — 2025-10-07

Artikel ini mengkaji struktur naratif Bekisar Merah karya Ahmad Tohari melalui naratologi Genette yang dipadukan dengan perspektif ekofeminisme. Analisis difokuskan pada kategori naratif seperti order, mood/focalization, voice, frequency, dan duration. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa metafora ayam bekisar bukan sekadar simbol, melainkan hadir dalam tataran diegetis untuk mencerminkan nasib Lasi yang terombang-ambing antara desa dan kota, domestikasi dan kebebasan, subordinasi dan dominasi. Struktur temporal novel memperlihatkan bias antroposentris: order menekankan trauma manusia tetapi mengabaikan memori ekologis; frequency dan duration memberi ruang pada intrik politik serta psikologi Lasi, sementara proses ekologis direduksi menjadi citraan singkat. Focalization menyingkap keterasingan tokoh perempuan, sedangkan voice narator heterodiegetik yang mahatahu justru membungkam suara fauna dan alam, memosisikan mereka hanya sebagai latar simbolik. Polanya mengungkap interseksi dominasi patriarki dan penyingkiran ekologis, di mana keheningan bekisar dan feminisasi Karangsoga menjadi metafora ganda atas subordinasi gender sekaligus lingkungan. Dengan demikian, novel ini menghadirkan arsitektur naratif yang indah tetapi problematis, sehingga penting dibaca ulang secara etis-ekologis demi wacana sastra Indonesia yang lebih inklusif.

Real Issue or Propaganda? Students’ Perspectives on Post Truth Phenomenon in Films

Shabrina An Adzhani — 2025-07-04

The development of information technology has led an era called post truth, when a particular viewpoint is published, accepted as true, and causes other alternative truths to be rejected. It is important for digital citizen to be aware of the existence of such phenomena. This research aims at revealing the perspective of university students semester 6 at English Letters program, UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta on post truth phenomenon emerging though social media as reflected in two films, Missing and Don’t Look Up. Using reader response approach and McIntire’s theory about post truth, the finding shows that students can generally notice post truth phenomenon in the society and are able to analyse how post truth are circulated. From the last steps of the research, it can be seen that more than half of the students demonstrated a critical and neutral stance, while the rest showed indifference, arguing that they did not know the person involved in the news. Meanwhile, most students showed greater concern and critical thinking when responding to the global issue presented in Don’t Look Up. This indicates that, in general, students demonstrated the necessary attitude—being critical and evaluative of the narratives circulating in the digital platforms.