Overview

Much has been said about how Javanese puppet theatre, Wayang Kulit, richly reflects the Javanese world, and how changes and tensions in performance practice mirror those in culture and society. For decades, television has been as intensely part of the Javanese world as Wayang. This book explores the ways two complex media and modes of being, seeing and fantasising, with their different cultures, coexist and meet, and haunt or invade each other. It is what what a Javanese commentator calls a 'difficult marriage' — intimate on the one hand, deeply alienating on the other, institutionalised yet at the same time mercurial and shifting. This encounter is explored on many levels including performance aesthetics, the technicalities of television production, issues of time, space, light, place, and movement, audience experience of live and televised performances, and the collaboration and struggle between performers and television producers. Central to the book are personal perspectives and experiences, as well as Javanese discussions surrounding the interaction between Wayang and television and their cultures. They are brought into a conversation with reflections on media and technology by writers such as Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Derrida, Paul Virilio, and James Siegel. Wayang's relationship with television is considered in the context of the theatre's intercourse with older and newer media, including electricity, radio, audio- and video-recording, the internet and social media.

Full Product Details

9789814722957

Table of Contents

Reviews

Mrazek's book, which is a continuation of his research that began in the 1990s, turned out to be an excellent commentary on what I observed during each of the performances I watched at that time-- it shows how wayang found its place in radios, cassette players, television sets, laptops and mobile phones of modern Indonesians. --Marianna Lis and Ward Keeler SOJOURN Wayang & Its Doubles is without a doubt a brilliant book and this review can only suggest the depth and richness of Mrazek's study. It is a wonderful and witty read, a valuable addition to the body of scholarly knowledge of wayang, and a must-read for anyone interested in wayang. --Sadiah Boonstra Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde

Author Information

Jan Mrázek is associate professor in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore and the founding director of the Singa Nglaras Gamelan Ensemble. Mrázek is the author of Phenomenology of a Puppet Theatre: Contemplations on the Art of Contemporary Javanese Wayang Kulit.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available