Millenial Gen’s Negotiation in Two Selected Pesantren
Literary Works
Hat Pujiati
{hatpujiati.sastra@unej.ac.id}
English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Jember Jember, Jawa Timur, Indonesia
Abstract— The ruin of Matapena Community as a community for pesantren
literature activist in 2014 does not end the reproduction of pesantren literature
with its pesantren cultural problems as a spiritual journey in planting self-
identity in alternative medias with popular genres. This article discusses
discoursive contestation of self-identity in two pesantren literary works; Sensei,
Assalamualaikum Desu! by Diyana Millah Islami and Menggapai Kosong by
Izzul Muttaqin. Construction of Self-identity in the literary works engages to the
contestation of self-identzity discourse in the real world and the cyber world of
the writers as milenial generations. Through theory of representation by Stuart
Hall, I choose consructionist approach with Foucauldian discoursive model to
analyze the works. Therefore, the data are taken from the two literary works and
also the social phenomena relate to the years of the works have been produced
to find out the meaning production constructed in works. The result shows an
in-between-ess of an absoluteness of religious ideology with the open-ness of
the millenial gen that limitless in time and space. Technology and latecapitalism
facilitate the fluidity of time and space boundary presented in the easthetic
works.
Keywords— Millenial, representation, latecapitalism, pesantren literature,
technology
1 Introduction
In early 2000s, there were four poles of different thoughts of literary communities in
Indonesia, they are Utan Kayu (now: Salihara), Forum Lingkar Pena (FLP), Matapena and the
other one was those who had the same ideas of taking Indonesian literature on ASEAN’s stage
[1]. The last community has no spesific name since they refuse to be judged as the counters of
the other previous communities. Around 2016, Matapena collapsed because of internal
management in the community [2]. However Salihara and FLP are fine and their members keep
publishing their works while the fourth keep moving underground [1]. The two literary
communities are dominant in Indonesia and they have different school in their works. Salihara
has a kind of experimental school in their works that stands under similar ideological cannopy
with Jakarta Art Councils (DKJ). Zurmailis in her research shows the symbolic power of
Jakarta Art Councils as doxa in Indonesian aesthetics literature [3] while FLP is under the
canopy of Islamic lifestyle which tends to move people socially and culturally as a counter
ISLLCE 2019, November 15-16, Kendari, Indonesia
Copyright © 2020 EAI
DOI 10.4108/eai.15-11-2019.2296289