Power Plays: Wayang Golek Theater of West Java
by Andrew N. Weintraub
This could very well be the first scholarly book in English on the wayang golek, the famous Sundanese rod- puppet theater of West Java. It is a detailed and lively account of the ways in which performers of this major Asian theatrical form have engaged with political discourses in Indonesia and shaped technological and commercial conditions of art and performance in a fast modernizing society.
Andrew Weintraub focuses on superstar performers and the musical troupes that dominated wayang golek during the New Order political regime of former president Suharto (1966-98). Studies of actual performances illuminate stylistic and formal elements and situate wayang golek as a vital social process in Sundanese culture.
Power Plays shows how meanings about identity, citizenship, and community are produced through theater, music, language and discourse. The book is at the center of a new synthesis emerging among ethno-musicology, cultural and media studies. Its cross-disciplinary approach will inspire researchers studying similar struggles over state authority, popular representation in culture and the politicization of the performing arts which was rampant during the Suharto era.
The author is an associate professor of music at the University of Pittsburg. His articles have appeared in collections, encyclopedias and journals including Ethnomusicology, Asian Music, Asian Theater Journal and Perfect Beat. As a practitioner of Indonesian gamelan and martial arts, Weintraub has performed in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Europe.
One of the book’s unique features is its accompanying interactive multimedia CD-ROM an excellent introduction to this very complex genre covering its history, the structure and variety of the puppets, the methods of performance practice, video clips and photographs, all of which is supported by an informed text. The disc makes for a more engaging introduction to this complex genre than the more usual text introduction.
With its authoritative background information, keen cultural analysis, invaluable ethnographic and biographic information, there are few other studies of contemporary performing arts in Indonesia that plunge so deeply into the politics of meaning within this theatrical form.
Power Plays: Wayang Golek Theater of West Java by Andrew N. Weintraub, Ohio University Press 2004, ISBN 089680240X, 295 pages, 8.6 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches.
Available for US$30 from Amazon Australia (shipping weight 15.4 ounces) or directly from Ohio University Press (www.ohiou.edu/oupress).
For comments and suggestions, please write : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2005 PakBill
You can read all past articles of
Toko Buku at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz
