Ellie Steel, senior editor at Harvill Secker poses questions to Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha ahead of her appearance at The London Book Fair.
Intan Paramaditha will be appearing alongside Syd Moore to discuss re-writing old stories and myths with a contemporary, feminist slant at the Essex Book Festival on 15 March 2019 at 19.00. Find out more and book tickets here.
What’s exciting about Indonesian literature at the moment, and which Indonesian writers would you recommend/do you admire?
I love the works of my co-authors in the horror anthology The Devil’s Slaves Club, Eka Kurniawan and Ugoran Prasad, perhaps because like me, they tend to write dark and weird stories. We are now preparing for The Devil’s Slaves Club 2, where we’ve invited writers we love to contribute stories, including Clara Ng, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, and Seno Gumira Ajidarma. These last three will be at The London Book Fair this year. While all of the authors participating in LBF will give you some good introduction to Indonesian literature, there are many other authors to watch. Poetry is big in Indonesia, and I would recommend Sapardi Djoko Damono, Cyntha Hariadi, and Gratiagusti Chananya Rompas.
Only a few works such as Eka Kurniawan’s have been translated into English, and this is a pity because Indonesian literature is very diverse and dynamic, with a lot of tension and contradictions to explore. Right now what’s exciting for me is to hear more stories that highlight minority perspectives including the everyday lives of the Chinese communities, written by authors like Clara and Cyntha, or communities in Eastern Indonesia, as in the works of Dicky Senda, Erni Aladjai, and Lily Yulianti Farid.
You’ve said before that you write about disobedient women in your stories, could you say a little more about what you mean by disobedient here?
Disobedient women refuse confinement and definitions imposed on them by structures of patriarchy. Such structures are complexly layered, and they include family, tradition, capitalism, and religious institutions. Disobedience is an act of resistance. Resistance itself can take many forms because it is shaped by specific social, economic, and cultural conditions. Some of us are privileged with platforms to articulate our resistance, through writing, organizing, or even navigating office politics. For some others, resistance can be very different. They might find tactics that are subtle and almost invisible, or they might choose chaos because order fails them. Disobedience is about unruliness and disruption. I am interested in the conditions that cause women to disobey, to make trouble, and become monsters. Apple and Knife is an ode to monstrous women.
Are there any writers who have particularly influenced or inspired your own writing?
I was influenced mostly by women writers such as Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood, Anne Sexton, and Toeti Heraty, all of whom wrote about monsters. In my early 20s I devoted my time to reading Arundhati Roy, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Ayu Utami. I also learned from Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and Budi Darma.
In the past few years I have been trying to read more contemporary women writers. I was excited to discover Samanta Schweblin, Sharlene Teo, Han Yujoo, Tiffany Tsao, and Jenny Zhang.
