Eka Kurniawan’s projection of women and patriarchal society: a radical feminist study of Beauty is a wound

Abstract

The Southeast Asian country Indonesia has witnessed many historical events that shaped its societal structures many times in many ways. Although the history of the country includes the ‘manly affairs’ like the Dutch colonial period, the Japanese invasion during the Second World War, 1965’s communist massacre, and Suharto’s regime, it hardly mentions the women of that time who equally suffered like their male counterparts. Eka Kurniawan with his literary spirit initiates to make visible these women of history who are carefully excluded by the men. In his debuting novel Cantik Itu Luka (2002), he contradicts the traditional narration by placing a prostitute as the central character as well as giving the steering in the hand of the female characters. With Benedict Anderson’s inspiration, this masterpiece writing was published in English in the name of Beauty Is a Wound a decade later while shaking the readers and literary critics around the globe for the explicit representation of sexual violence. He has touched on all the aspects including prostitution, marriage, reproduction, and others which are institutionalized by the patriarchal society for its own benefits. Through observing the women and patriarchal society in the novel, this paper analyzes the root of oppression of the women with the radical feminist approach. Moreover, it also captures how the women with their radical image can reject the discourse of the male-dominated society while challenging it.