Speaking through silence: Trauma in Literary Work
Nungki Heriyati, Riris K. Sarumpaet, Chirstina T. Suprihatin
Universitas Komputer Indonesia, Universitas Indonesia
Abstract
Traumatic experience is hard to express easily because it is beyond comprehension and too threatening to be accepted into the consciousness. As one of traumatic history in Indonesia 1965 history is inaccessible and haunts Indonesian. New Order strictly control the history by silencing the certain group that against their power. The fall of New Order regime in 1998 triggers the survivors, researchers, and sympathizers to re-examine the history which resulted in the various reports and testimonies. Literary work is also take part in representing the historical atrocity. Literary work is regarded as a means to give testimony for those who cannot survive during the catastrophe. However, it also faces difficulty in representing the unpresentable event. The paper analyzes how the traumatic experience depicted and problematized in Lasmi [11]. By using the concept of trauma, the paper attempts to unveil the strategy used to represent inaccessible traumatic experience. The analysis underlies two points. First, collective and personal experience are intertwined in historical trauma. Second, silence is part of strategies as well as resistance of the survivor to voicing their voice.
Keywords: Indonesia, Lasmi, traumatic experience and 1965
Topic: Digital Humanities