Yvonne Michalik Knihy

Indonesian women’s fiction has flourished since the beginning of the Reformasi Era in 1998. Who are the authors? What do they write about? What are the contexts of their writings? This anthology offers a taste of this literary phenomenon by selecting nine stories, five author’s interviews, and five scholarly essays. It covers a variety of genres and themes, from social realism to gothic mystery to romance, from gender and sexuality to political satire to Islamic piety. Indonesian Women Writers is a must read for students and scholars of Indonesian and Southeast Asian studies as well as a general audience with an interest in contemporary fiction.

While Indonesia’s film industry has experienced a rapid growth and diversification since the end of Suharto’s authoritarian New Order regime in 1998, these developments have received only little academic attention. Especially the role of women filmmakers, who have played an important part in shaping contemporary Indonesian cinema and constantly add new perspectives to it, has been widely overlooked. The contributions to this volume analyse films directed and produced by some of the most visible women in post-New Order Indonesian cinema in terms of their specific aesthetics and narrative styles as well as the socio-political issues they deal with. The authors further explore women filmmakers’ attitudes towards feminism, highlighting how the particular Indonesian context causes some of them to describe their approach as a “women’s perspective” rather than a feminist one. In addition to the scholarly contributions, interviews with Indonesian women filmmakers from different genres provide insights into their perspectives on gender issues and their individual experiences as women in the male-dominated film industry. Contributors: Yvonne Michalik, Novi Kurnia, Olin Monteiro, Intan Paramaditha, Ekky Imanjaya, Diani Citra, Wiwik Sushartami, Jan Budweg, and Sofia Setyorini.

Although Singapore is one of the smallest countries in Southeast Asia, with only 5 million inhabitants, it is also the richest country in the region and the world's fourth leading financial center. But hardly anything is known about the Singaporean culture, especially about film as a medium for expressing the cultural authenticity of this island country. And the multi-ethnic city-state can look back on a long film history. From the colonial past until today, Singapore’s film scene has become emancipated; nowadays Eric Khoo also receives recognition in Cannes. Unfortunately very little is known about the other filmmakers from this pulsating and vivid Asian film scene, such as Royston Tan, Jack Neo, Kelvin Tong, Glen Goei, Chee Kong Cheah, Victric Thng, Tania Sng, Tan Pin Pin and others. This book – the second volume of a series of scientific editions on Southeast Asian Films (the first book looked at the Indonesian cinema) – therefore closes a gap by introducing the Singaporean independent film scene. Personal and biographical backgrounds are illuminated by means of interviews with the filmmakers, in which they discuss their movies and offer insights into their viewpoints on this vivid film culture.

Indonesien ist - nach China, Indien und USA - eines der bevölkerungsreichsten Staaten der Welt. Auf seinen unzähligen Inseln - zu denen neben Bali, Lombok, Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (Borneo), Sulawesi und Papua auch noch 17.500 weitere Inseln zählen - entwickelte sich eine einzigartige kulturelle Vielfalt. Um so erstaunlicher ist, dass man im Westen wenig über indonesische Filmkultur weiß. Sie ist jedoch nicht unwesentlich, wie man an den Experimentalfilmen von Gotot Prakosas und Faozan Rizals sieht. Ihre Filme sind nicht nur unkommerziell, sie verdeutlichen eindringlich jene asiatische Filmkultur, die International immer mehr an Bedeutung erlangt.