ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the changes in the content of contemporary Indonesian literature after the defeat of the Left in the country. The investigation began with the analysis of short stories that were published in the anti-leftist magazines Sastra and Horison in the first decade of the New Order regime. Umar Kayam’s short stories, in particular, serve as a blueprint for mainstream Indonesian novels about 1965 that express criticisms of the Left. Literary texts produced in Indonesia after 1965 have thus the following similarities: they criticise the Left, Soekarno’s Guided Democracy, and Soeharto’s New Order regime. Most of the selected texts were either translated into English or promoted by the Lontar Foundation, a non-profit organisation that was founded in 1987 by local scholars known for their attachment to liberal arts and for their opposition to Lekra in the 1960s, such as Goenawan Mohamad and Umar Kayam.
