Sugar factories always hold a variety of collective memories regarding colonialism, as their presence was initiated by the colonial regime. These memories can manifest in both bitter and sweet recollections, which, of course, are not as sweet as the sugar produced. One research discussing these memories is by Wawan Yulianto titled “Memory Studies of Sidoarjo Sugar Factory” (2020).
His article reviews a collection of short stories published by the Sidoarjo Arts Council. The short stories reviewed include:
“Kisah Budi dan Sebutir Gula Pertemuan Beda Alam”;
“Seorang Gadis di Teras Rumah”;
“Kopi Tanpa Gula”;
“Hitam di Kuku Ayah”;
“Keputusan”;
“Di Bawah Pohon Kersen”
“Seruan dari Cerobong Asap”;
“Gula dan Darah”;
“Titik Pembalasan”;
“Pertemanan di Pabrik Gula”;
“Sesaat Kemudian Hal Aneh pun Terjadi pada Diriku”; dan
“Rumah di Sudut Pabrik Gula”.
The notes on collective memory written in the article explain that there are three points of memory touched upon. These are sweet memories, bitter memories, and lastly, horror memories. From these memories, the authors present a sort of traumatic burden as a reflection in the present time. Especially for sweet memories, which paradoxically become a utopian escape for the authors as a form of cathartic effort.
In these sweet memories, there is one short story titled “Gula Tanpa Kopi” by Ruri. In the article, the author discusses the wise way of consuming sugar to avoid the impact of death. Additionally, there is an interesting quote from the reviewed short story, which is “something sweet is needed sweetly”. This means the short story provides an effort of reflection on the dark past memories transformed into a resurgence towards progressive change.
This recalls the Cultuurstelsel (forced cultivation) policy conducted by colonialism. Furthermore, in 1870, this policy shifted to a land lease system as a political strategy by colonialism (Tricahyono, 2020:3). Thus, the industrial land became increasingly developed, especially as the native population experienced exploitation no different from the previous policy.
On the other hand, the bitter memories present a number of past events wrapped in current conditions through several conflicts, mainly involving sugar factories. This means there are artifacts of dark memories, such as issues around the very minimal wages of factory workers and the problematic situation of employee salaries being sent too late, causing economic problems. Moreover, a character described as too consumptive actually represents a sort of dependency on the sugar factory.
Not only that, but there is also a kind of ambivalent mentality, especially in the short story by Niswahikmah titled “Hitam di Kuku Ayah”. According to the article’s explanation, this short story talks about a father figure (a factory worker) who dresses like an office worker. There is a sense of shame shown by the father character towards his child. The shame shown is his unwillingness for the child character to know that his father is a rough laborer in the sugar factory.
Furthermore, there is a memory of horror recollections. This means a climax tragedy where physical torture and horrifying and taboo things are told within a sugar factory setting. The short story discussed in the article showcases the sad story of Marlinah, who died tragically due to a sugarcane milling machine. Not without reason, this also explains a form of bloody memory. That the presence of sugar factory industrialization also provides a dark impact on the indigenous community.
From the various tragedies mentioned in Wawan Yulianto’s research article, it certainly provides a response regarding the memory of a conflict in the past. Furthermore, the industrialization of sugar factories in Sidoarjo, especially Tulangan, gives an illustration of land appropriation and forced cultivation. Therefore, the expansion of the residency area to Sidoarjo resulted in the transition of the farming community into factory workers.
On the other hand, the dependence on wages from the sugar factory labor later sparked the formation of labor unions. To improve the welfare of the workers in terms of wages conducted by the sugar factory industry (Nugroho, 2015: 67-79). Although in 1870 the forced cultivation system (cultuurstelsel) was abolished and shifted to independent land development by the sugar factory industry, this impact caused the farmers to lose their land and face a crisis with inadequate income.
From the various memory tragedies discussed in the article, it reflects on historical moments. This means the condition of Tulangan as an agrarian area has changed into a sugar factory industrial area with land appropriation and oppression by colonialism. Furthermore, the current writers’ memory of Sidoarjo’s history is the result of a form of catharsis in an effort to improve oneself from escaping the dark events that occurred in Tulangan as a historical tragedy.
The article written by Wawan Yulianto certainly explains various phenomena about the memory of the past of the Tulangan Sidoarjo sugar factory. However, this cannot be separated from the historical aspect present. In addition to the memory phenomena experienced by the writer today, there are still various artifacts from each different perspective. Nonetheless, this serves as a form of change over time from every experience regarding the memory of sugar factory industrialization.
Moreover, this memory becomes an excavation towards a new perspective in addressing past events. This perspective becomes an effort on how the community subjects can learn from historical phenomena. Furthermore, it is empowerment for future progress. Additionally, in this collection of short stories in the article, it becomes a form of Dark Tourism, a wise revelation in viewing historical facts.
In short, the reading of memory history presents a dark fact of history. This memory is neatly stored in the collection of short stories published. Indeed, it can explore the crimes of colonialism through bitter and horror memories in the narrative imagination of the short story.
M.A. Haris Firismanda was the magister student of Literature and Cultural Studies, Airlangga University.
Adnan Guntur published a collection of plays. He titled this publication “Body at 11:11”. This work was published by Pagan Press. Adnan compiled five play titles. “Eyes” is one of the titles that is intriguing for a deeper review. This work features a narrative with a forward and backward movement. It also implies a story about the life of urban society.
The narrative is embedded in the symbolism of body and time. These two symbols depict human life thrown into the daily world (lebenswelt). This causes both entities to become the central narrative in this play. The body is depicted as stopping amidst the whirl of time. Because of this, the body experiences an absence within itself.
Implicitly, absence and cessation are part of the modern human (subject) being thrown into their life. Moreover, urban society has been devoured by time due to being very busy. The exploration of symbols in Adnan’s script also provides meaning over the completeness of existence bound by time.
Besides, the script does not show a clear division of characters. The story is driven only by the figure of a Narrator. Their presence seems to hold three roles at once. The narrator acts as both the antagonist, protagonist, and mediator in the story. Their presence is very ambiguous and holds uncertainty in character and position within the story.
Centralizing characterization in the narrator makes the script’s exploration very broad on stage. This means, the director can choose one or even more players depending on the stage needs to fulfill the characterization in this story. Further interpretation of the narrator in this script allows readers to interpret more deeply from the narrator’s point of view as the driver of the story.
Moreover, from the three divisions of character roles, each has its conflicts and tensions. The narrator character positions their effort to achieve self-fulfillment towards the body, namely “Eyes”. However, they must confront the character from the antagonist’s perspective to claim that part of the body. Besides, the time, at 11:11, marks a cessation as a manifestation of incompleteness.
On the other hand, the narrator driving from the mediator’s perspective instead provides a kind of reflection on positioning through that body organ, and time with a religious view. They represent a condition that exists in absence except for the return to God. This gives meaning that the body (eyes) and time are a form of incompleteness.
The resolution of conflict in the script is concluded with the main character finding the “eyes”. However, this also provides reflection on the character’s subjectivity towards a value on its completeness. They attempt to show acceptance towards the position of the body as ownership of another, namely God.
Furthermore, the subject narrator character is also faced with a kind of darkness dimension. This dimension is marked by their non-existence following 11:11—as a representation of rush hour symbol. Therefore, the narrator character then reinterprets their body organ as the starting point of seeking God.
Further reflection from the script “Eyes” provides a view on the life of urban society experiencing an unfree condition due to time control. Besides, eyes as a body organ cannot be separated from time. Both are intertwined. However, the script shows symbolic symptoms of the subject’s condition shackled by the material world.
On one hand, this materiality becomes the departure point of the subject towards non-existence in empty space. On the other hand, the analogy of body organs like eyes and time symbolized by 11:11 is interpreted as the poet’s effort to capture the human condition shackled by the urban social structure dimension. From here, humans are likened to time machines that continuously move in their non-existence towards their original body.
The script “Eyes” implies a relationship between the body and time. Both intertwine, leading the subject to be thrown into their everyday world. There is a paradox stored between 11:11 and the stopping body. Among the hustle and bustle of people, the subject tries to reflect on themselves. It is a transcendental effort within themselves to escape the shackles of time.
Therefore, this script holds a deep reflection on human life, especially urban society. Because they have been occupied with activities and work. Humans no longer reflect on themselves as human beings. They are just like gears among the machines of industry.
In short, this work aims to deliver a wake-up call to modern humans. The Poet attempts to invite readers or audience members to reflect again on their existence amidst their dissolution.
M.A. Haris Firismanda merupakan mahasiswa S2 Kajian Sastra dan Budaya Universitas Airlangga
Humans always attach themselves to symbolic desires. They are no longer just confined to sexual desires or pleasures. Instead, it’s the drive for luxury, grandeur, or economic stability involving urban spatial planning. One such phenomenon can be observed through the anthropology of poetry titled “A Drop of Water in the Red-Light District” (2008). Moreover, this work is also part of the Javanese Literature Workshop development program.
As a work of poetry, it is written in Javanese. It also represents the group of sex workers because its poets come from the development program for this group. Therefore, this work contains collective memories and class consciousness of these workers. It simultaneously shows that their imagination holds a symbolic desire for a certain completeness.
Further, the poetry work titled “Terminal” is particularly interesting for deeper analysis. As its title suggests, this work harbors a symbolic desire for departure. There’s a desire from the Poet to present their memory of that space. It is interpreted as an initial gateway to a new world. The work reads as follows:
l Akeh tenan wong kang teka-lunga
Akeh wong Ian pawongan kang sliweran
Angel anggonkujalukpitulungan
Amarga wedi yen kapusan
On one hand, the city harbors an imagination of progress and novelty. On the other hand, the poet harbors a fear of urban life. It is seen as a very gray and new world of life. It’s as if entering an unknown jungle. The presence of the city actually stores anxiety memories for its writer.
Unlike the poetry “Terminal”, the poetry titled “Will Never Forget” instead harbors a desire for longing towards the other, namely the figure of a husband. This work harbors an imagination of the subject’s completeness if they could meet or live together with their husband. The fragment of the poem reads as follows:
Gusti
Tulungen awakku iki
Krana aku saiki lagi susah Ian bingung
Amarga ditinggal bojoku megawe adoh banget
Saiki aku dhewekan
Ana papan kene
Aku mung bisa nenuwun
Karo sing Kuwasa
Muga-muga bojoku
Ana papan penggawean
Slamet
Ora ana alangan apa-apa
Aku dhewe nek kene kerja
Aku pengen urip bebarengan karo bojoku
Kaya apa bae
Aku bakal tetep ngenteni bojoku bali
The Poet seems haunted by the anxiety over her husband’s job far from her. She experiences a condition of alienation because she does not achieve completeness in herself. Economic issues underlie the alienation problem of this wife subject. However, that completeness is not complemented by the departure of the other figure. Moreover, her husband has to venture far to fulfill life’s necessities. As a result, she feels a desire to reach her completeness as a subject living together with the other.
The other subject, in this collection of works, is not limited to the wife-husband relationship but also includes the relationship between mother and child. The poetry titled “Love” presents a dimension of alienation for the poet in this work. The starting point of her problem arises because a mother has to migrate far from her village to support her family (the other), including her child. The fragment of the poem reads as follows:
Aku tresna marang anakku
Sampek teka jeroning atiku
Sapa bae ora bakal bisa misahake aku utawa anakku
Aku tresna sampek tekan pati
This work shows the symbolic desire of the mother, which is her child. She goes far from her child to earn a living. Because of that issue, as a subject, the mother does not feel completeness. She expresses her sadness through the poem. She shows her love and feelings for her child, and it also shows that her love extends to her place of origin.
Several fragments of the poem show a view towards urban life. There is a memory about departure. There is also an imagination of alienation. Both fill the minds of their writers in this poetry work. They show an imagination of alienation and also experience failure in completeness regarding their symbolic desire towards the other.
Besides, the emergence of conflicts in several poems arises due to materialistic drives. They have to fulfill their lives. For that need, they try to find a better living space. This, in fact, presents its own trauma and memory for them. They seem to be facing a moment of collapse on themselves.
In short, symbolic desire, in this work, is recorded through the minds of its poets. They all are subjects-the other trying to achieve completeness for themselves, but they instead experience an experience of alienation due to the failure to achieve life completeness.
Nuzula Maghfiro | Mahasiswa Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia Universitas Airlangga []
Literary works never emerge from a void. Their presence stems from critical reasoning. Through their works, writers radically unveil matters often considered taboo in life. They question, challenge, and debate normative views that obscure other meanings of life. Thus, literary works are capable of transcending taboo perspectives and understandings in life. They go beyond normative meanings that settle in the shroud of human consciousness.
Furthermore, the dimension of human existence has “consciousness” not only in awareness of what happens around them but also in self-awareness and their existence. Existence is a new Archimedean point where humans attach the world and themselves. For Kierkegaard, humans are beings always challenged to choose and make decisions in the struggle of their lives. However, many uncertainties are difficult to understand rationally, uncertainties that make humans doubt and feel anxious about their future.
Similarly, the script “C4,” the third script from the head of the Saung Teater Adnan Guntur, presents a dimension of defection from majority reasoning. Looking back at Adnan Guntur’s previous work like “Body at 11:11,” this script seems to present differently from its predecessors. The choice of “C4” as a title appears as a marker and symbolic code that can evoke various interpretations among its readers.
If delved into deeper, the code “C4” has different meanings based on various fields. In military terms, C4 is a code for a specific type of explosive used by special forces. This explosive has an effective blast power to destroy something. Meanwhile, “C4” also has another meaning in the medical field. C4 is a code for a complement compound. In other words, it can also be understood as a compound in the blood that synchronizes with the immune system. This means that an increase or decrease in C4 can cause health disorders. Therefore, C4 is expected to always be in a stable (synchronized) condition to prevent health issues in the human body.
The concepts of explosion and synchronization have led to discoveries about creation and the formation of novelty. The creation myth in the Big Bang theory, for example, explains how the explosion will form dimensions of space and time. It presents a singularity point that explodes with such force. Then, it produces matter that continues to collide and rotate until it forms again into something that expands as a result of the explosion.
In Aristotle’s cosmology, he considered his ideas to form a perfect system, where each part logically follows another. For him, the activity of movement is always caused by a certain mover. As a series of cause-and-effect laws in the universe that must end at the first cause.
Moving towards human existence, Kierkegaard introduces his philosophical understanding of human existence that seriously considers human subjectivity, emphasizing passion and grappling with their life and existence as an individual. Kierkegaard’s thought becomes the starting point for new contemplation on the meaning of human existence as a person committed to being themselves. Through this basis, Kierkegaard proposed the concept of existentialism, emphasizing the issue of divinity or godliness at the peak of his thought.
Questioning the existence of divinity always finds a potentially infinite root because humans have a tendency to acknowledge a transcendent dimension. Understanding God or the transcendent rationally is nothing but a human effort to comprehend the visible and the invisible nature. It also solidifies their belief in the existence of a god considered to influence the intricacies of life. At the same time, humans who claim not to believe in transcendence also have a desire to rationalize such non-existence. They deny because they are unable to grasp its existence. In other words, any aim to understand and reject the transcendent is proof that its presence has truly influenced human life.
A sequence of searching, explosion, creation, dimensions of space and time, and matters of divinity share a common thread that melts together. The stage of existence becomes a dimension where the souls and bodies of humans reside. Searching within the human brain will hatch novelty. Explosion will shape emotions that explore problems, leading to new creation. Then, at the point of transcendence, humans are brought to something higher, mystical, and complex.
In short, the script “C4” was born as a dimension of social criticism on existence. The poet presents how the concept of explosion and destruction can push humans towards the search for their existence. They always strive towards awareness of the transcendent dimension, and it also leads to creation and the Creator. “C4” emerges as questions never accompanied by answers to any certainty.
M.A. Haris Firismanda merupakan mahasiswa S2 Kajian Sastra dan Budaya Universitas Airlangga.
The city is always assumed to be a humanistic space because its presence encompasses the dimensions of human life with all its problems, even though the dimension of humanity in that space begins to be submerged by the relentless passage of time. This causes people to no longer be able to reflect on the corporeality they possess. They can no longer reflect on their own presence, that is, a body that has integrity in urban spaces.
Unfortunately, the body, which stores rationality and modernity, always buries humanity in urban spaces. Urban society is then no longer seen as a real body but as a symbolic one, thus shaping them like a robotic mechanism. This causes their bodies to be consumed by time and their entities folded into an artificial space.
This is what was realized by Adnan—the poet who forged his literary life in the city of Surabaya—who captures the side of life in urban Surabaya with all its busyness in the whirl of time and expanse of space. He captures this restlessness into his latest poetry book titled “The Body That Devours Itself”. This poet attempts to speak out against the condition of Surabaya, crowded with urban noise and development. This work leads to a philosophical reflection owned by Horkheimer—one of the philosophers placed as one of the pioneers of the critical school. He argued that there is a human effort to become rational, but this actually turns the rational human back into something irrational (Sindhunata, 2019:198). This phenomenon is not much different from development that ignores the environmental ecosystem, and the naturalness of nature that also equips humans themselves to survive. Moreover, it stores a phenomenon of a very individualistic social space towards each other’s busyness. From here, Adnan seems to want to present again the dimension of humanity that tries to become gods in themselves without seeing it wholly in a confined condition.
This phenomenon can be seen through the poem titled “11 Bodies in a Surabaya Room” including the poem titled “Searching for Human Body from Urban Body”, Adnan presents various urban society vocabularies that are dense such as city buses, noisy exhausts, motorcycles, train tracks, supermarkets/malls. These diction choices store the side of human life that is forcibly created by themselves as part of the advancement of civilization. Especially how the urban human body begins to lose its own humanity, trapped by the sequence of time especially in lines 23-24 of the poem as follows:
“…oh, how can I see my own head, how can I define myself…”
From this sentence, the poet begins to imagine something separated between the body and the soul or humanity that disappears due to being consumed by each individual’s ego in the dimension of space and time. Because of this, it also threatens the values of Arek Suroboyo regarding life on mutual cooperation, and it is also inscribed with the value of egalitarianism as a concept in unifying social interaction especially in this society (Hadi and Supratiningsih. 2018:398). Moreover, this value also stems from the experience of living together in a society, not from each subjective individual thought (Hadi and Supratiningsih. 2018:398). This simultaneously affirms equality towards each other in thinking without knowing any particular caste. Thus, this principle is built by Arek Suroboyo. They come from egalitarian and cooperative spaces. Not from individualistic life values.
Adnan’s poetry also presents social criticism. This is shown in one of the titles “Buying a Gallon From the Body of God”. The poem juxtaposes God as the highest degree, but it reflects the greed of humans for abundant wealth with the pretext of urban development. This is shown from the phenomenon behind the development that also harbors an act of corruption especially in the ninth stanza of this poem as follows:
“Writing a name or Corrupting, as long as check marked sitting with air conditioning, eating food taken from Mars using jets and helicopters”
moreover, the choice of diction “rolling” as a repetition of diction that frequently appears in the poem stores an image of urban human life’s greed.
Furthermore, the choice of diction “gallon” certainly has a different interpretation. If this poem only used the word “bottle”, it certainly would not store an image of something excessive. A gallon is synonymous with a large water bottle, which of course, means “more” or “wanting to be more,” indicating human life in perpetual lack. In the psychoanalytic view of Lacan, he explains that when humans are born, they will identify themselves through the real, the imaginary, and finally, the symbolic condition. The choice of diction for the gallon, as something excessive, stores a symbolic text condition of human desire (desire). This traps humans in the network of that chain of signifiers (Lacan, 1977: 54-55).
Therefore, the greed for development and the depiction of places in the poem shown in
the following verse:
“luxurious places, black suits, bulging bellies especially gallons”
certainly explains how humans in the urban environment are formed without knowing their own bodies as humans that are hard to find especially in urban environments. His verse contains cynicism towards that life.
Adnan’s poetry presents various social criticisms and reflections on the search for the body in the city of Surabaya, lost in the contained local values and the principle of mutual cooperation that begins to fade due to artificial community life. Thus, these poems then question again how the body is searched for as an autonomous human.
Adnan’s poetry stores a satire embedded in the network of signs in his verses. It is a reflection and re-questioning of the urban community body that has been consumed by the whirl of time and folded into the expanse of space in urban community activities.
