Fetish, Recognition, Revolution

James T. Siegel

Published by Princeton University Press 1997

Fetish, Recognition, Revolution

James T. Siegel

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691224008

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book concerns the role of language in the Indonesian revolution. James Siegel, an anthropologist with long experience in various parts of that country, traces the beginnings of the Indonesian revolution, which occurred from 1945 through 1949 and which ended Dutch colonial rule, to the last part of the nineteenth century. At that time, the peoples of the Dutch East Indies began to translate literature from most places in the world. Siegel discovers in that moment a force within communication more important than the specific messages it conveyed. The subsequent containment of this linguistic force he calls the "fetish of modernity," which, like other fetishes, was thought to be able to compel events. Here, the event is the recognition of the bearer of the fetish as a person of the modern world.

The taming of this force in Indonesian nationalism and the continuation of its wild form in the revolution are the major subjects of the book. Its material is literature from Indonesian and Dutch as well as first-person accounts of the revolution.

Author / Editor information

James T. Siegel is Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of The Rope of God; Shadow, and Sound: The Historical Thought of a Sumatran People; and Solo in the New Order: Language and Hierarchy in an Indonesian City (Princeton).

Reviews

"This is an extraordinary book. The virtuosity of the analyses is truly remarkable. Siegel's writing is oftentimes brilliant, and sometimes stunningly powerful."—Michael E. Meeker, University of California, San Diego

"Not since Kahin's and Anderson's classics, which were published decades ago, have I seen such a powerful explanation of the Indonesian revolution. Historians, anthropologists, and political scientists in the field of Indonesian, Southeast Asian, colonial and post-colonial studies, as well as scholars of literature, nationalism, and identity, will use this book with profit. A 'Siegel School' of Indonesian Studies will be established by this book."—Rudolf Mrázek, University of Michigan

"Siegel's analysis is convincing. It summoned Sumatran recollections of creating urban modernity through adopting music, clothing, language, and books from European sources, yet perceiving these new elements as effortlessly translated into a new Indonesian cultural world."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I. The Fetish of Appearance
Chapter One. The "I" of a Lingua Franca Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Chapter Two. What Did Not Happen to Indonesians Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
Chapter Three. Fetishizing Appearance, or Is "I" a Criminal? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
Part II. Recognition
Chapter Four. Student Hidjau and The Feeling of Freedom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
Chapter Five. Scandal, Women, Authors, and Sino-Malay Nationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Chapter Six. Love Sick, or the Failures of the Fetish and of Translation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Chapter Seven. The Wish for Hierarchy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Part III. Revolution
Chapter Eight. Collaboration and Cautious Rebellion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Chapter Nine. Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Epilogue. Pramoedya Ananta Toer's "Flunky + Maid," or Conservative Indonesian, Revolutionary Indonesian, and the Lack of Indonesian Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	276