ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses realist and surrealist post-authoritarian novels that address the anti-leftist purge, such as Ayu Utami’s Larung (2001), Eka Kurniawan’s Cantik Itu Luka (Beauty is a Wound, 2002), Seno Gumira Ajidarma’s Kalatidha (2007), Nusya Kuswatin’s Lasmi (2009), I Made Iwan Darmawan’s Ayu Manda (2010), Ratih Kumala’s Gadis Kretek (2012), and Gitanyali’s Blues Merbabu (2011) and 65 (2012). The novels, written by authors who were not yet born or were only a child in 1965, range from using surrealism to realism, but there is a clear coherence of theme in that they either abstain from addressing the “Clean Self” policy (criticising instead only the “Clean Environment” policy) or portray the PKI in the same manner as the New Order regime. The “Clean Self” policy – which is not unproblematic either, since it still encouraged the persecution of individuals who embraced a different ideology – is as usual not questioned in these novels.
