Islands of Imagination: Modern Indonesian Plays

Series Editor Frank Stewart.
Guest Editors John H. McGlynn and Cobina Gillitt.

Islands of Imagination, Volume One: Modern Indonesian Plays presents seven modern plays by some of Indonesia’s most accomplished dramatists. The works, published between 1939 and 2009, have been shaped by such diverse artistic and political influences as Western and indigenous theater traditions, the need to evade government censorship, and the social issues plaguing Indonesian society.

The playwrights in this volume are Rita Matu Mona, Armijn Pané, N. Riantiarno, Ratna Sarumpaet, Iwan Simatupang, Luna Vidya, and Putu Wijaya.

Included is “Modern Indonesian Plays,” an introduction by guest editor Cobina Gillitt, an assistant professor of theater and performance at Purchase College.

Islands of Imagination was published in cooperation with the Lontar Foundation, a Jakarta-based organization whose goal is to publish and celebrate Indonesian literature internationally. Guest editor John McGlynn established the foundation in 1987 and now serves as chairman of its board. He has translated dozens of full-length literary works and, through the foundation, edited and overseen the translation and publication of more than two hundred Indonesian authors.

256 pp., winter 2014 (26:2), $20
ISBN 978-0-8248-5378-5
Project Muse
JSTOR