UCLA Indonesian Studies Speaker Series (2015-2016) begins with Laurie J. Sears, Walker Family Endowed Professor of History and Director of the Southeast Asia Center and Program, University of Washington, Seattle

Tuesday, November 17, 2015
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
243 Royce Hall
UCLA Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Ayu Utami’s is one of Indonesia’s most acclaimed writers. Her first two novels were written in the very late New Order and soon after its fall. The first one Saman won prizes. The second one Larung was a difficult read. Hardly anyone in Indonesia or outside of it could understand the text outside of her intellectual circle. Having established her reputation as a serious writer, Utami’s next work is a tale of three friends and their adventures as they pursue critical spirituality and a critical path. Known for her liberal use of sexuality in her novels, this third book, The Fu Numeral, is no different, and the three friends pair up sexually in different ways in their journeys in the novel. This third 500 page but more accessible novel has also spawned what Utami promises will be 12 more novels drawing on themes from the first one. Three have been written so far, and it’s clear Utami now wants a bigger audience. This talk will explore Utami’s notions of critical spirituality and a critical path, her use of the Oedipus complex, and why these novels are important for historians. I’ll also discuss the most recent novel of the Bilangan Fu (The Fu Numeral) Series.

Laurie J. Sears is the Walker Family Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington in Seattle where she teaches Southeast Asian histories, cultures, and literatures. She is currently Director of the University of Washington’s National Resource Center for Southeast Asian Studies. She is the author of Shadows of Empire: Colonial Discourse and Javanese Tales, which won the Harry Benda Award of the Association for Asian Studies in 1997, and editor of Fantasizing the Feminine in Indonesia (both from Duke University Press) and Knowing Southeast Asian Subjects (University of Washington Press). Her most recent book is Situated Testimonies: Dread and Enchantment in an Indonesian Literary Archive (University of Hawai’i Press, 2013). Sears has published many edited volumes and essays on Javanese and Indonesian history and oral and written literatures.

Cost : Free and open to the public.

BarbaraGaerlan
310-206-9163
cseas@international.ucla.edu

www.international.ucla.edu/cseas/

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Comparative Literature