ABSTRACT
This chapter is a refl ection on the sexuality of the feisty eponymous female protagonists of two recent Indonesian novels: Lasmi by Nusya Kuswatin ( 2009 ) and Ayu Manda by I Made Iwan Darmawan ( 2010 ). Both novels fi t into a recent trend in literary, cultural and social activity in Indonesia: discourse about the events of 1965, a taboo topic for the duration of Suharto’s New Order, but one that is now openly discussed. 1 Inevitably, much of that discussion has focused on the violence of the period and its aftermath. While Lasmi and Ayu Manda are not exceptions to that, both novels engage at the same time in an exploration of the sexuality of the protagonists, which is the focus of the reading in this chapter. These novels challenge, in different ways, conventional constructions of female sexuality in Indonesia. Lasmi is an antidote to the Gerwani-as-sexual-deviant discourse and Ayu Manda deconstructs the coding of the sexy dancer as prostitute. At the same time, in the domestic setting of the stories, particularly within the tight-knit family unit in Lasmi and a royal compound in Ayu Manda, there is a profound sense of loss of innocence.
