Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia by Benedict Anderson

Language and Power: Exploring Political Cultures in Indonesia Reviews

• 
  Tony

  Benedict Anderson dedicated his life to study about Southeast Asia culture and history especially Indonesia. His deep understanding on Indonesia were completely remarkable. In this book, Ben Andre explain how Power and Language are somehow relate to each other in terms of Indonesia struggle to be an independent nations. The language used by Indonesian Founding father to express their concerns, spirits and dream of a free nations.
  
  I learned a lot about the perspective through Ben Anderson writing. Yes, for some parts the books seems complicated to followed but still offer adventurous writing on Indonesian history of languages.
• 
  saïd

  Although several decades outdated (the book was originally published in 1990), this collection of essays remains an excellent academic source examining the political cultures of Indonesia, with a focus on Java. While the essays themselves were certainly fascinating, I was also delighted by the amount of footnotes and references, which divulged a veritable cornucopia of other resources to look into. Off to the library...!
• 
  Anjar Priandoyo

  This book is written in 1990, its explain his background on why he interested in studying Indonesia. In the beginning, I thought its a political science book, indeed it cover political analysis, but I think most of part is more ethnography on Javanese and also anthropological work. This might be the weakness of this book to cover a broad topic into a single book. I think it can be separated into several books. His life is an inspiration for anyone that dedicated their life for the advancement of science.
• 
  Indah Threez Lestari

  111 - 2017
• 
  Patrick

  Not my favorite work by Anderson, but worth reading if you like his style and political opinions.
• 
  Noah

  anderson's critical analysis on the concept of "nation-state" is not only foundational but also universal
• 
  R K

  Language and Power is an academic text from 1990 focusing on the political cultures of Indonesia, specifically Java. For those of you that didn't immediately click away or fall asleep, L&P covers its specific subject with an admirable amount of depth. The book also served as an excellent gateway as its numerous footnotes and references introduced me to a treasure trove of other sources, academic and otherwise, I would have never found on my own.
  
  The book is actually a collection of eight essays, under the subheadings of Power, Language, and Consciousness, written by a scholar who lived in Jakarta from 1961 to 1964. That he was subsequently banned from reentry by the Suharto regime because of his writings is almost a commendation, placing him in the good literary company of Pramoedya Toer whom the author explores at great length in several of his essays. The essays have been written over long time span, with the first essay published in 1966 and the most recent published in 1989. As such, there are several small inconsistencies and reversals as the reader works from essay to essay. However, each essay presents a thorough and thought provoking examination on a narrow slice of Javanese culture.
  
  While I found the entire book enlightening, three chapters stood out in particular. The first one, which is also the first essay in the book, tackles Javanese conceptions of power and contrasts it to that of the West. Of all the essays this one had the most immediate applicability to my everyday life. It placed in proper cultural context several attitudes and practices I saw around both my school and village that previously had been enigmatic. Another one of my favorites was the author’s deconstruction of the influences and cultural politics behind Indonesia’s many national monuments and two of its political cartoonists. Perceptive and original with strident examinations of the art styles and symbolism involved in both the monument design and cartoons this chapter was custom made for me, an unabashed comics and architecture nerd. Finally, the chapter titled Sembah-Sumpah digs into a phenomenon that was not even on my radar: the disappointment of the recent generations with what their revolutionary forbearers bequeathed them. From there it explores how the lack of literature written in Javanese is a reflection of this and that many Javanese authors, the most prominent example given being Pramoedya Toer, have transitioned to writing in bahasa Indonesia while using Javanese to hide subliminal (and stingingly sarcastic and satirical) messages.
  
  This is one of the few books I think I would like to reread. The author does an admirable job writing in a clean, clear prose and his ideas are all logically formed and presented. But the highly subtle nature of many of these subjects (such as whether the accumulation of power has no inherent limits or if the quantum of power in the universe is constant) and the fact that they are so unlike anything I have studied before almost necessitates a second reading. For anyone who wants a window into the Javanese psyche, this book shed light on many subjects that Indonesians themselves could not explain.
  
• 
  Anom Astika

  Awal tahun 1990 an aku membaca buku ini ketika terbit untuk pertama kalinya. Seorang kawan meminjamkan buku yang baru dibawanya dari Amerika. Jarak seminggu dua minggu kemudian kami mulai berdiskusi tentang isi buku yang ditulis oleh ahli Indonesia dari Cornell University, Ben Anderson. Beberapa dari isi buku ini adalah artikel artikel yang sudah pernah dimuat dalam jurnal Prisma, seperti artikel yang berjudul Sumbah, Sembah dan Serapah misalnya. Sejam dua jam berlalu, sang kawan lalu menawariku untuk menulis resensi buku tersebut di dalam jurnal Prisma. Terkejut bukan kepalang aku, karena tak pernah ku sangka aku bisa mendapat kesempatan untuk menulis di jurnal yang terkenal di masa itu.
  Hampir sebulan aku mencoba menulis resensi buku ini, dan menurutku memang tidak mudah untuk membaca pemikiran Ben Anderson. Tapi yang jelas, seluruh isi buku ini memberikan horison yang cukup luas tentang fenomena budaya politik di Indonesia terutama pada periode Orde Baru.
• 
  R Yacob Christian Sihombing

  .......
  
  Tak ada yang dapat ditarik lebih jauh daripada hubungan secara main-main dan menghambur-hamburkan antara agama dan seksualitas dari Chentini, sebagaimana dicontohkan oleh episode ketika Cebolang, yang sesudah tidak tidur semalam bergantian menghirup alat kelamin dan masturbasi timbal balik dengan dua santri remaja, dengan tanpa beban, bangun untuk mengamini salat subuh di pesantren.
  
  .......
• 
  mahatmanto

  ini juga sudah diterjemahin dengan bagus oleh revianto.
  saya membacanya dengan judul "kuasa dan kata".
• 
  Zahra

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