Okky Madasari (born October 30, 1984) is an Indonesian novelist and sociologist known for her portrayals of the social and political conditions in Indonesia. She writes on resistance against injustice and the struggle for freedom and humanity and is the youngest writer to have won the Khatulistiwa Literary Award, a major Indonesian honor.[1]
Early years
Madasari was born on October 30, 1984, in Magetan, East Java, Indonesia. She graduated from Gadjah Mada University’s International Relations Department in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in political science. After her graduation, she pursued a career as a journalist and writer. In 2012, Madasari began a master's program in sociology at the University of Indonesia. She graduated in July 2014 with a thesis titled Genealogi Novel Indonesia: Kapitalisme, Islam dan Sastra Perlawanan (Genealogy of Indonesian Novels: Capitalism, Islam and Critical Literature).[2]
In August 2019, Madasari began work on her PhD thesis on cultural censorship in Indonesia's post-totalitarian era. She is writing the thesis under a full scholarship from the National University of Singapore.[1]
Novels
Madasari's novels focus on questions around human rights and freedom, describing struggles against any form of oppression.
Apsanti Djokosujatno, an Indonesian literary critic from the University of Indonesia, stated that Madasari's works are already categorized as canon and will be considered classics. Djokosujatno went further to dub Madasari as the next Pramoedya Ananta Toer.[3]
Madasari's first novel, Entrok (2010), is set during the dictatorship of Suharto's regime and details how Indonesians struggled to survive under the oppression of the military.[4] Her second novel, 86 (2011), describes corruption within the country and among its civil servants.[5]
Her third novel, Maryam (2012), focuses on the persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia and won a major Indonesian literary prize, the Khatulistiwa Literary Award.[6] At the age of 28, Madasari is the youngest person to win the award. Both of her previous novels had been shortlisted for the award as well. Maryam was translated into English and released under the title of The Outcast in March 2014.
Pasung Jiwa is her fourth novel and was released in May 2013. It addresses an individual's struggle to break free from their limitations as well as societal restrictions, such as traditions, religion, government, and economic dominance by the rich. The novel was shortlisted for the Khatulistiwa Literary Award in 2013.[7][8]Pasung Jiwa was translated into English under the title Bound in July 2014 and translated into German under the title Gebunden. In 2019, it was translated into Arabic and published in Egypt.
Her fifth novel, Kerumunan Terakhir, was published in May 2016. In the novel, Madasari explores how digital phenomena and social media can take over people's lives and examines the risk of conflating reality with the virtual world.[9]
The novel was translated into English under the title The Last Crowd.
Short stories
In 2017, she published her first anthology of short stories titled Yang Bertahan dan Binasa Perlahan (Resisting and Fading Away), which covered various issues influential to Indonesia, and summarized her short story writing from the past decade.[10] The stories in the collection follow themes related to the personal and private life of an individual, conflict in families, political corruption, and religious hypocrisy in Indonesia.
Children's novels
Inspired by her daughter's nightly request for a bedtime story, Madasari embarked on writing novels for children in early 2018, and finished her first children's novel, Mata di Tanah Melus (Mata in the Land of Melus) in the middle of the same year. The novel tells a story about adventure of 12-year-old Matara and her mother in a fantasy world in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara. The novel becomes the first of children adventure series, called Mata Series,[11] and has been well received both by the public and literary critics, with one analyst praising it as a progressive work important to Indonesia's children literature.[12]
The second book in the series, Mata dan Rahasia Pulau Gapi (Mata and the Secret of Gapi Island), is based on Madasari'as trip to Ternate Island. In the novel, Matara and her new friends try to help save the great legacies of Ternate Island, which Madasari establishes as a crucial place in world history.[13][14]
In early 2019, Madasari published the third novel of the series, Mata dan Manusia Laut (Mata and the Sea People), based on her trip to Wakatobi Island in Southeast Sulawesi. The fourth and the final book of the series, called Mata di Dunia Purba (Mata in the Old World) is currently[when?] being written.
Each of the three books has become bases for various academic and thesis writing, with different aspects of the book being raised as important part for children.[15][16]
Non-fiction book
In December 2019, Madasari published her first non-fiction book titled Genealogi Sastra Indonesia: Kapitalisme, Islam dan Sastra Perlawanan (Genealogy Indonesian Literature: Capitalism, Islam and Critical Literature) in the form of a free digital book in her official website.[17] The popularity of the book, which is based on Madasari's master's thesis, caused the website to temporarily crash.
The book has received very positive reviews from critics,[18] with one writing that it is the first attempt since Ariel Heryanto's 1985 book Perdebatan Sastra Konstektual (Debating Contextual Literature) to discuss Indonesian literature seriously and comprehensively.[19]
Personal views
Madasari has written a number of essays on various issues for Indonesian and international media.
In her essay for the Griffith Review titled "Islam, Capitalism and Literature" in 2015, she criticizes the penetration of Islamic fundamentalist teachings into fiction, especially novels. She argues that publishers focus on book sales rather than content[20] and warns of the death of serious literature and the wider exposure of young Indonesians to fundamentalism. She also wrote an article on the same issue for Jakarta Post titled "Questioning Islamic Label of Books and Films," which criticized the use of Islam in cultural products and argued instead that these books and films are not Islamic at all.[21] Madasari also speaks out against pressure for women and girls to wear the hijab in her Jakarta Post article, citing the fact that the authorities actually require students to wear a hijab in school, and stating that those not wearing a hijab are facing bullying and threats.[22]
Madasari also criticizes rising women's activism driven by strict and fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, stating that such a morally based activism is arbitrary, and is often against public interests.[23]
She is very active in fighting against blasphemy law in many of her writings, arguing that it legalizes and legitimizes hatred and violates basic human rights.[24]
She has demanded the revision of the national curriculum to better address the mass killings of 1965-66 and urges Indonesian authorities to officially acknowledge the massacre, and apologize to the victims.[25]
On regional issues, she believes that a true and genuine bond of people in Southeast Asia can only be achieved through cultural and literary exchanges.[28] She also writes about the Australian intellectual contribution to Indonesia, praising Australian scholars for their influence on the country's critical minds.[29]
In several interviews and speeches, Madasari has stated that she is influenced by Karl Marx and Michel Foucault,[30] but that above all she believes in individual freedom and human creativity.[31][32]
Academic
Madasari graduated from Gadjah Mada University's International Relations Department in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 2012, she pursued her master's degree in sociology at the University of Indonesia and graduated in July 2014.
In 2017, Madasari was selected by the US government to represent Indonesia in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, US, from August to October 2017, where she engaged in various programs with the local community, including speaking about Indonesia's culture to local and international audiences. That year, the program celebrated its half-century anniversary.[33]
From January to June 2018, Madasari was the resident writer and visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She delivered speeches about literature and society in front of Singaporean audiences at various venues, including schools, art, and community centers.
Madasari is a PhD candidate with the Malay Studies Department of NUS under a research scholarship from the university since 2019. She was also awarded the Dean's Fellowship, an award of the NUS, which is only offered to the top incoming PhD students[34] She is now doing her PhD thesis on censorship and knowledge production in Indonesia after the fall of Suharto. She believes that rather than disappearing, censorship in post-Suharto Indonesia has been more frequent, especially in the Joko Widodo presidency.[35][36] She has been expressing how proud and honored she has been to be with the Malay Studies Department, which she says is among the first, if not the first, to seriously develop social theories by using local and indigenous sources of knowledge as opposed to being dependent on Western sources.[37]
Global activism
In 2017, Madasari was invited to speak at the Berlin International Literature Festival in Germany about her works as well as about Indonesia in general.[38] In 2016, Madasari was invited by University of Warwick in United Kingdom to speak about the role of culture and literature in forging ASEAN prosperity and unity. In 2015, she was invited by the Austrian government to speak at the Islam and Women's Contemporary Literature in Hittisau, Austria. In October of that year, she was one of the Indonesian writers featured at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where Indonesia was the guest of honor. In 2014, she was invited to speak about literature and society at the Douarnenez Film Festival in France.
Madasari has been invited to speak at Singapore Writer Festival, Philippine Literary Festival, and Kuala Lumpur Book Fair. She co-founded the ASEAN Literary Festival in 2014 and is the program director of the festival. In 2019, Madasari was nominated for Southeast Asia's Women of the Future Awards for her contribution in advancement of the region's culture.[39]
ASEAN Literary Festival
In 2014 Madasari co-founded (with Indonesian journalist Abdul Khalik) the ASEAN Literary Festival, which aims to introduce ASEAN writers and their works to the global world while providing a medium for writers to exchange ideas and works. The first ASEAN Literary Festival took place in Jakarta in March 2014. The festival quickly became one of the region's most important annual cultural events.[40]
In 2016, the Indonesian police tried to ban the festival by withdrawing the permit it had previously issued due to protests from organisations against the festival's discussions of LGBT issues and the 1965 Communist massacre.[41][42][43]
Expert witness
In her commitment to freedom of expression and fighting against censorship as well as protection of minorities, Madasari has become an expert witness for students of University of Sumatera Utara in a recent censorship case in Sumatera Utara Administrative Court against the university's rector who dissolved the whole editorial team of a student press, Suara USU, because of the publication of a short story.[44][45]
Omong-Omong Media is a platform set up by Madasari. It is part of OMGroup, which also includes OMG! My Story and OM Institute. Omong-Omong Media provides an alternative space for information and discourse, focusing on essays, fiction, and poetry on a variety of topics and perspectives. The platform is based on the spirit of "omong-omong", which means chatting or conversing, and aims to transform casual talks into more structured and in-depth writings.
Bibliography
Entrok/The Years of The Voiceless (2010)
86 (2011)
Maryam/The Outcast (2012)
Pasung Jiwa/Bound (2013)
Kerumunan Terakhir/The Last Crowd (2016)
Yang Bertahan dan Binasa Perlahan (2017)
Mata di Tanah Melus (2018)
Mata dan Rahasia Pulau Gapi (2018)
Mata dan Manusia Laut (2019)
Genealogi Sastra Indonesia: Kapitalisme, Islam dan Sastra Perlawanan (2019)
