On November 25^th, Seoul National University Asia Center Southeast Center has invited Lee, Yun, professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies for a special lecture on “Looking into Indonesian Modern Literature through <5cm>” as one of the programs for the ‘Indonesia Week.’

She wanted for her lecture to be a “Public good just like a lighthouse in the ocean.” In hoping to help develop a better understanding of Indonesia, Lee began her lecture.

The lecture was on the trends of modern Indonesian literacy world, and was divided into three parts.

1. ‘Era of female writers’ vigorous energy of female writers into the literacy world.

As Suharto government collapsed in 1997, the censorship system was abolished; there has been increase of public interest in transparency and freedom in Indonesia. This resulted in increasing number of appearances of sensational works by young female writers in the Indonesian literacy world. The evaluation on such new changes is mixed in positions. For example, work of Ayu Utami is praised for preeminence of the language in her works, while they are criticized as being a pornographic fiction, commercializing sex, bringing a threat to the traditional values and moral standards.

Lee analyzed that Ayu Utami has brought sensation with her book 『SAMAN』, in which rich description of sexuality that had been taboo for patriarchal Indonesia was forwardly expressed. Lee evaluated her work to symbolize the confrontation to the patriarchal society. Moreover it has opened the window to the numerous young female writers to the Indonesian literacy world.

2. Popularity of ‘Islamic Popular Novel’ that reaffirms the Muslim identity.

As of now, romance novels with “love” as their theme, with Islamic ideology are notably popular in Indonesia, and these are called “Islamic Popular Novels.” For one famous example,『Ayat-Ayat Cinda』 written by Habiburahman incorporated verses from the Koran more than half of the book. Then what is the reason behind the popularity of Indonesian Popular Novels? As the greatest Muslim nation, lots of Muslims are concerned about the Westernization. They are strongly concerned about the identity as an Islamic believer facing the westernization and materialism. Islamic popular novels provide a proper reading materials that portrays the appropriate Islamic ideology. Thanks to these Islamic Popular Novels, Indonesian Muslim readers can reaffirm their identity as Muslims.

3. Active energy on ‘Teenlit/Novel Remaja’ that targets the young generation.

Teenlit/Novel Remaja, which can be translated as ‘Youth Novels’ is very popular among the young generation. Also known as Novel Remaja, are easy to read, as they have simple flow. Moreover the usual materials for the teenage literature are young love, friendship, everyday life, incorporating neologism, and the buzzwards amongst the young generation. The active reading habits of the young generation caused by the boom of the teenage literature led to active market of Indonesian publication industries and the reading market. However, most of them portrays only the city lives of the young generation, especially of high-class society, failing to represent the daily lives of the entire Indonesian youth. Teenage literature is also not free of criticisms that it destroys the Indonesia languages by reckless usages of neologism and colloquial terms, including internet slang. However, the market power of Teenlit has led to the film industry, and many books are also made into movies as it gets published.

The publication market in Indonesia is transforming into consumer-based. In the past, the readers simply consumed the literature works provided by the publications. But now the readers have come out of the previous consuming behavior and are leading the publication market as an active participants.

In closing, Professor Lee engaged the audience by dropping the question, “why is the title of move 5cm?” before the screening of the movie ‘5cm’, which is adaptation of the infamous teenlit ‘5cm, ’ the representation of the Tennlit itself. She finished the lecture by saying “hope you find out the answer to the question from the movie.”