Stepping on a Wulu: Minor Characters and Narrative Possibilities in the Sĕrat Cĕnthini

Abstract

"Javanese literature is one of the world's richest and most unusual literary traditions yet it is little known today outside of Java, Indonesia, and a handful of western universities. With its more than a millennium of documented history, its complex interactions over the centuries with literature written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Malay and Dutch, its often symbiotic relationship with the performing arts of puppetry and dance, and its own immense creativity and insight, this vastly understudied literature offers a lens to understanding Java's fascinating world as well as human ingenuity more broadly. The essays in this volume, Storied Island: New Explorations in Javanese Literature, take a fresh look at questions and themes pertaining to Java's literature, employing new theoretical and methodological lenses"-- Rediscovering Islam in Javanese history / M.C. Ricklefs -- Stepping on a Wulu : minor characters and narrative possibilities in the Sĕrat Cĕnthini / Tony Day -- Better to touch the heart : performing Sufi songs (Suluk) in the Sĕrat Cĕnthini / Nancy K. Florida -- The Hamza affect : feeling as a moving force in the Asian-Islamic epic / Bernard Arps -- Sunan Bonang's teaching : ethical Sufism in sixteenth-century Java / Yumi Sugahara -- Situated prophethood : reading the Serat Ambiya in nineteenth-century Java / Ronit Ricci -- Where is Mecca? Or, map and territory : reflections from Java / Verena Meyer -- Words of power and wisdom : credible authorities and reliable sources in the Sĕrat Nitik Sultan Agung / Els Bogaerts -- On the wrong side of history : key episodes in the Sĕrat Rama and the Panji Paniba / Willem van der Molen -- Rethinking categorization in Javanese literary history : some reflections on a fin-de-siècle memoir by Raden Sasrakusuma / Edwin P. Wieringa.