Modern Library of Indonesia Series
Earth Dance (Tarian Bumi) by Oka Rusmini Oka Rusmini’s Earth Dance is an important contribution to this literary process of exposing the underbelly of Bali. With its publication Oka Rusmini joins two minority groups in contemporary Indonesian literature—Balinese novelists, and female novelists Prof. Pamela Allen Earth Dance, the story of four generations of Balinese women, centers on conflicts that arise between the demands of caste and personal desires.Narrated by Ida Ayu Telaga, a Balinese woman in her thirties, the novel shows Balinese women—as depicted by her mother, grandmother and female peers—to be motivated by two factors: the yearning to be beautiful, and the desire for a high-caste husband. Headstrong Telaga defies her mother’s wishes and marries the man of her dreams, who is a commoner. Thus, in a reversal of societal expectations, as shown in the novel by images of women who aspire to “liberation” through “marrying up”, Telaga’s emancipation is implicitly characterized as a move downwards, through transformation to the status of a commoner. Earth Dance also reveals that—like high-caste status—beauty, too, has a price. Behind the thick, glossy hair and golden complexion, lies a web of jealousy, derision and intrigue. Telaga, whose life is controlled by her mother’s avarice, her mother-inlaw’s bitterness and the greed of her sister-in-law, has frequent cause to wonder: “Is this what it means to be a woman?” Oka Rusmini writes poetry, novels, and short stories. Her work has received many awards. In 2003 her novel Tarian Bumi (Earth Dance) earned her a place as one of the recipients of the literary achievement awards of the Center for Documentation of Language of the Indonesian Department of Education. Her published works include: Monolog Pohon (poems, 1997),Tarian Bumi (novel, 2000), Sagra (short stories, 2001), Kenanga (novel, 2003), Patiwangi (poems, 2003), Warna Kita (poems, 2007), Pandora (poems, 2008), and Tempurung (novel, 2010). This novel, Tarian Bumi (Earth Dance), has also been translated into German and published in Germany under the tittle Erdentanz. Size: 14 x 21,5 x 1.1 cm, weight: 250 gr. Pages: 164 pp, Binding: Softcover ISBN: 978-979-8083-82-2 Price: IDR 150,000, USD 18.00,-
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