Reading Matters: An Examination of Plurality of Meaning in Selected Indonesian Fiction, 1980-1995

Abstract

Using the work of theorists in the field of reader-response theory, this thesis examines the notion that the meaning of a given literary work is a product of the interaction between the reader and the text, and that a given work thus potentially contains a plurality of valid meanings. The theory is applied to selected works of three of Indonesia's most prolific writers in the period 1980-1995: Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Y.B. Mangunwijaya and Putu Wijaya. Each work is subjected to at least two different 'readings' which in each case privilege different features of the text and in effect produce a different literary work.