THE AUTONOMY OF INDONESIAN MUSLIM WOMEN IN THE NOVEL ‘ADHRA’ JAKARTA BY NAJIB AL-KYLANI A Feminist Literary Criticism Perspective

Abstract

This article reviews the novel 'Adhrā' Jākartā (Jakartanese Girl) by Najīb al-Kylānī. Through the approach of feminist literary criticism and the hermeneutic `method it‟s aimed to express the autonomy of Indonesian Islamic women within the novel by interpreting the structure of symbols or texts in a number of language signs in the literary system. The results of the analysis revealed that the character of Fāt}imah is a symbol which represents the concept of autonomy of Indonesian Islamic women in the public and domestic sphere due to the universal and cosmopolitan Islamic values that Fāt}imah implements in personal, social, national, and civil life. This universal and cosmopolitan Islam illustrates an Islamic paradigm offered by the author to be translated into a unity in diversity of Indonesian context, so as to be able to present the figure of an autonomous Indonesian Muslim woman in a pluralistic and elastic Indonesian context.