Sarwoto, Paulus

Island as method demands the interrogation of Western-centric epistemology for its centrality and domination in literary and cultural theory. Postcolonial theory can be seen as one of such efforts. However, an Indian scholar, Revathi Krishnaswamy, argues that despite the enormous influence of postcolonial theory, it has “only dented, not dismantled Eurocentric practices of knowledge productions.” In Indonesia, until a couple decades ago, critical postcolonial awareness in literary criticism was even almost absent (Foulcher). When finally, it is in vogue among Indonesian scholars, the topics brought up have often been somewhat outdated in the global academic conversations. Methodologically, they merely use local texts as another evidence of the Postcolonial theorization formulated elsewhere. Kuan-Hsing Chen (2010) sees this sort of critique by which local texts were scrutinized with Western theoretical lenses insufficient to dismantle unequal power relations. Rather than seeing the West as the opposing other, a new paradigm that views the contact zone with the West just as one among many local factors in the trajectory of one’s postcolonial identity should be adopted. Responding this outlook and Indonesian postcoloniality in general, this working paper will look at one particular Javanese text, Serat Babad Pati (1925), to see how the text critiques Western construction of the other  and the problematics emerging of such decolonial gesture.