Academic literature on the topic 'Balinese fiction'

The following essay explores the use of fiction in ethnographic research. While the concept of fiction as a research methodology is not a new one, most proponents claim that fiction is most useful in the writing of ethnographic data. Despite the gradual acceptance of arts-based methods in ethnography, there still remains a false dichotomy of art and scientific research. This essay contributes to the discussion by arguing that fiction also plays an active role in producing knowledge and truth. To make this argument, the author brings together in conversation scholars of art and literature with social researchers. While multiple examples are illustrated to show how fiction creates knowledge in ethnography, the primary focus will be Clifford Geertz’s (2005) “Notes on a Balinese Cockfight.” The purpose is to demonstrate how fiction can be a means of knowledge production, so long as it is situated in sound research methods.

The aim of this research is to explain the intrinsic elements and the moral form of the story contained in Tarian Bumi novel by Oka Rusmini (2007). The data of this research were obtained from a novel entitled “Tarian Bumi” by Oka Rusmini (2007). Data were collected by observation method and note-taking technique. The collected data were analyzed using the theory of the Intrinsic Fiction Element (Nurgiyantoro, 2015) and the Moral Value theory in Fiction (Nurgiyantoro, 2009). The results of the analysis are presented using informal methods. Based on the analysis that were conducted the intrinsic elements contained in the novel Tarian Bumi are divided into themes, plots, characters, background, point of view, and language. The form of moral values contained in the novel Tarian Bumi is distinguished into a human relationship with itself, human relationship with God, human relationships with other human beings, and human relations with the environment is manifested with social life. The moral value contained in the novel is a reflection of Balinese people’s life that clings to the concept of Tri Hita Karana.

- Victoria J. Baker, Anthony Jackson, Anthropology at home, ASA monographs 25, London: Tavistock Publications, 1987, 221 pages. - Thomas Bargatzky, Martin A. van Bakel, Private politics; A multi-disciplinary approach to ‘Big-Man’ systems, Studies in Human Society, Vol. I, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986. x, 220 pp., illustrations, maps, index., Renée R. Hagesteijn, Pieter van de Velde (eds.) - W.E.A. van Beek, Victor W. Turner, The anthropology of experience, (with an epilogue by Clifford Geertz). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986., Edward M. Bruner (eds.) - W. van den Broeke, H. Meyer, De Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij; Driekwart eeuw koloniaal spoor, Zutphen: Walburg Pers, met medewerking van F.A.J. Heckler. 1987; 152 blz. - R. Buijtenhuijs, S. Bernus et al., Le fils et le neveu: Jeux et enjeux de la parenté tourarègue, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 1986, XI, 343 pp. - R. Buijtenhuijs, Dominique Casajus, La tente dans la solitude: La société et les morts chez les Touaregs Kel Ferwan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge/Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, 1987, 390 pp. - H.J.M. Claessen, Christine Ward Gailey, Kinship to kingship; Gender hierarchy and state formation in the Tongan Islands. Austin: University of Texas Press (Texas Press Sourcebooks in Anthropology, No. 14.), 1987. 326 pp., figs., index, bibl. - Alfred E. Daniëls, Richard B. Davis, Muang metaphysics, Bangkok: Pandora Press,1984. - Alfred E. Daniëls, Gehan Wijeyewardene, Place and emotion in northern Thai ritual behaviour, Bangkok: Pandora Press, 1986. - P.M.H. Groen, Jacques van Doorn, The process of decolonization 1945-1975; The military experience in comparitive perspective, CASP publications no. 17, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, 1987, 46 pp., Willem J. Hendrix (eds.) - Rosemarijn Hoefte, Luis H. Daal, Antilliaans verhaal. Zutphen: De Walburg Pers, 1988, Ted Schouten (eds.) - W.L. Idema, Claudine Salmon, Literary migrations; Traditional Chinese fiction in Asia (17th-20th centuries), Beijing: International culture publishing corporation, 1987, 11 + vi + 661 pp. - P.E. de Josselin de Jong, Sharon A. Carstens, Cultural identity in Northern Peninsular Malaysia, Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Monographs in international studies, Southeast Asia series no. 63, 1986. 91 pp. - P.E. de Josselin de Jong, Robert Wessing, The soul of ambiguity: The tiger in Southeast Asia. Northern Illinois University, Center for Southeast Asian studies, Special report no. 24, 1986. 148 pp., glossary, bibliography. - G.W. Locher, Martine Segalen, Historical anthropology of the family, Cambridge University Press, 1986, 328 pp. - Bernd Nothofer, Hans Kähler, Enggano-Deutsches Wörterbuch. Aus dem Nachlass herausgegeben und mit einem Deutsch-Enggano-Wörterverzeichnis versehen von Hans Schmidt, Veröffentlichungen des Seminars für Indonesische und Südseesprachen der Universität Hamburg, Band 14, Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1987. XIII + 404 pp. - J.D.M. Platenkamp, Brigitte Renard-Clamagirand, Marobo; Une société ema de Timor. Langues et civillisations de l’Asie du sud-est et du monde insulindien no. 12, Paris: Selaf, 1983, 490 pp. - H.C.G. Schoenaker, Leo Frobenius, Ethnographische Notizen aus den Jahren 1905 und 1906; II: Kuba, Leele, Nord-Kete; III: Luluwa, Süd-Kete, Bena Mai, Pende, Cokwe. Bearb.u.hrsg. von Hildegard Klein. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987; 1988. 223 S., 437 Zeichnungen, 11 fotos, 5 karten; 268 S., 500 Zeichnungen, 15 fotos, 12 karten. - M. Schoffeleers, I.M. Lewis, Religion in context: Cults and charisma, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, X + 139 pp. - B. Schuch, Ingrid Liebig-Hundius, Thailands Lehrer zwischen ‘Tradition’ und `Fortschritt’; Eine empirische Untersuchung politisch-sozialer und pädagogischer Einstellungen thailändischer Lehrerstudenten des Jahres 1974. Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Band 85, Weisbaden: Steiner Verlag, 1984, 342 pp. - Henke Schulte Nordholt, S.J. Tambiah, Thought and social action; An anthropological perspective, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Univ. Press, 1985, 411 pp. - Nico G. Schulte Nordholt, Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, From British to Bumiputra rule: Local politics and rural development in Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian studies, 1986. 282 pp. - A. Teeuw, I. Syukri, History of the Malay kingdom of Patani - Sejarah Kerajaan Melayu Patani, by Ibrahim Syukri (pseudonym), translated by Conner Bailey and John N. Miksic. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International studies, monographs in international studies Southeast Asia series number 68, 1985. xx + 90 pp. - Truong Quang, Andrew Vickerman, The fate of the peasantry: Premature `transition to socialism’ in the democratic republic of Vietnam, Monograph No. 28, Yale University, Southeast Asia studies, 1986. 373 pp., incl. bibliography. - Adrian Vickers, H.I.R. Hinzler, Catalogue of Balinese manuscripts in the library of the University of Leiden and other collections in the Netherlands, vol. I: Reproductions of the drawings from the Van der Tuuk collection; vol. II: Descriptions of the Balinese drawings form the Van der Tuuk collection. Leiden: E.J. Brill/Leiden University Press, 1987.

- Jet Bakels, Robert Layton, The anthropology of art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, 258 pp. - J.M.S. Baljon, Herman Leonard Beck, De Islam in Nederland: Romancing religion? [Inaugurele rede theologische faculteit Tilburg 14.2.1992.] Tilburg: Tilburg University Press 1992. - R.H. Barnes, J.D.M. Platenkamp, North Halmahera: Non-Austronesian Languages, Austronesian cultures?, Lecture presented to the Oosters Genootschap in Nederland at Leiden on 23 May 1989, Leiden: Oosters Genootschap in Nederland, 1990. 33 pp. - Hans Borkent, Directory of Southeast Asianists in the Pacific Northwest. Compiled by: Northwest Regional Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies. Seattle, WA: University of Washington [et al.], 1990. 108 pp. - Roy Ellen, Frans Hüsken, Cognation and social organization in Southeast Asia. Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 145. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1991, 221 pp. figs. tables, index., Jeremy Kemp (eds.) - C. de Jonge, Huub J.W.M. Boelaars, Indonesianisasi. Het omvormingsproces van de katholieke kerk in Indonesië tot de Indonesische katholieke kerk, Kerk en Theologie in Context, 13, Kampen: Kok, 1991, ix + 472 pp. - Nico de Jonge, Gregory Forth, Space and place in eastern Indonesia, University of Kent at Canterbury, Centre of South-east Asian Studies (Occasional Paper no. 16) 1991. 85 pp., ills. - J. Kommers, Bernard Juillerat, Oedipe chasseur. Une mythologie du sujet en Nouvelle-Guinée, P.U.F., Le fil rouge, section 1 Psychanalyse. Paris, 1991. - Gerco Kroes, Signe Howell, Society and cosmos, the Chewong of Peninsular Malaysia, University of Chicago Press, 1989, xv + 294 pp. - Daniel S. Lev, S. Pompe, Indonesian Law 1949-1989: A bibliography of foreign-language materials with brief commentaries on the law, Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law and Administration in Non-Western Countries. Nijhoff, 1992. - A. M. Luyendijk-Elshout, H. den Hertog, De militair geneeskundige verzorging in Atjeh, 1873-1904. Amsterdam, Thesis Publishers, 1991. - G.E. Marrison, Wolfgang Marschall, The Rejang of South Sumatra. Hull: Centre for South-east Asian Studies, 1992, iii + 93 pp., ill. (Occasional Papers no. 19: special issue)., Michele Galizia, Thomas M. Psota (eds.) - Harry A. Poeze, Marijke Barend-van Haeften, Oost-Indie gespiegeld; Nicolaas de Graaff, een schrijvend chirurgijn in dienst van de VOC. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1992, 279 pp. - Ratna Saptari, H. Claessen, Het kweekbed ontkiemd; Opstellen aangeboden aan Els Postel. Leiden: VENA, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leiden, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RA., M. van den Engel, D. Plantenga (eds.) - Jerome Rousseau, James J. Fox, The heritage of traditional agriculture among the western Austronesians. Occasional paper of the department of Anthropology. Comparitive Austronesian Project. Research school of Pacific studies. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 1992. 89 pp. - Oscar Salemink, Gehan Wijeyewardene, Ethnic groups acrss National boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia. Singapore 1990, Institute of Southeast Asian studies (Social issues in Southeast Asia series). x + 192 pp. - Henk Schulte Nordholt, U. Wikan, Managing turbulent hearts. A Balinese formula for living, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1990, xxvi + 343 pp. photos. - Mary Somers Heidhues, Claudine Salmon, Le moment ‘sino-malais’ de la litterature indonesienne. [Cahier d’Archipel 19.] Paris: Association Archipel, 1992. - Heather Sutherland, J.N.F.M. à Campo, Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij; Stoomvaart en staatsvorming in de Indonesische archipel 1888-1914, Hilversum: Verloren, (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Publikaties van de Faculteit der Historische en Kunstwetenschappen III), 1992, 756 pp., tables, graphics, photographs. - Gerard Termorshuizen, Robin W. Winks, Asia in Western fiction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990. x + 229 pp., James R. Rush (eds.) - John Verhaar, Lourens de Vries, The morphology of Wambon of the Irian Jaya Upper-Digul area. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1992, xiv + 98 pp., Robinia de Vries-Wiersma (eds.) - Maria van Yperen, Cornelia N. Moore, Translation East and West: A cross-cultural approach, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. xxv + 259 pp., Lucy Lower (eds.) - Harvey Whitehouse, Klaus Neumann, Not the way it really was: constructing the Tolai past. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1992.

-Leonard Y. Andaya, Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h, The Malay Peninsula; Crossroads of the maritime silk road (100 BC-1300 AD). [Translated by Victoria Hobson.] Leiden: Brill, 2002, xxxv + 607 pp. [Handbook of oriental studies, 13. -Greg Bankoff, Resil B. Mojares, The war against the Americans; Resistance and collaboration in Cebu 1899-1906. Quezon city: Ateneo de Manila University, 1999, 250 pp. -R.H. Barnes, Andrea Katalin Molnar, Grandchildren of the Ga'e ancestors; Social organization and cosmology among the Hoga Sara of Flores. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000, xii + 306 pp. [Verhandeling 185.] -Peter Boomgaard, Emmanuel Vigneron, Le territoire et la santé; La transition sanitaire en Polynésie francaise. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1999, 281 pp. [Espaces et milieux.] -Clara Brakel-Papenhuyzen, Raechelle Rubinstein, Beyond the realm of the senses; The Balinese ritual of kekawin composition. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2000, xv + 293 pp. [Verhandelingen 181.] -Ian Caldwell, O.W. Wolters, History, culture, and region in Southeast Asian perspectives. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia program, Cornell University/Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian studies, 1999, 272 pp. [Studies on Southeast Asia 26.] -Peter van Diermen, Jonathan Rigg, More than the soil; Rural change in Southeast Asia. Harlow, Essex: Prentice Hall / Pearson education, 2001, xv + 184 pp. -Guy Drouot, Martin Stuart-Fox, Historical dictionary of Laos. Second edition. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2001, lxi + 527 pp. [Asian/Oceanian historical dictionaries series 35.] [First edition 1992.] -Doris Jedamski, Elsbeth Locher-Scholten, Women and the colonial state; Essays on gender and modernity in the Netherlands Indies 1900-1942. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2000, 251 pp. -Carool Kersten, Robert Hampson, Cross-cultural encounters in Joseph Conrad's Malay fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000, xi + 248 pp. -Victor T. King, C. Michael Hall ,Tourism in South and Southeast Asia; Issues and cases. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000, xiv + 293 pp., Stephen Page (eds) -John McCarthy, Bernard Sellato, Forest, resources and people in Bulungan; Elements for a history of settlement, trade and social dynamics in Borneo, 1880-2000. Jakarta: Center for international forestry research (CIFOR), 2001, ix + 183 pp. -Naomi M. McPherson, Michael French Smith, Village on the edge; Changing times in Papua New Guinea. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002, xviii + 214 pp. -Gert J. Oostindie, Peter van Wiechen, Vademecum van de Oost- en West-Indische Compagnie Historisch-geografisch overzicht van de Nederlandse aanwezigheid in Afrika, Amerika, Azië en West-Australië vanaf 1602 tot heden. Utrecht: Bestebreurtje, 2002, 381 pp. -Gert J. Oostindie, C.L. Temminck Groll, The Dutch overseas; Architectural Survey; Mutual heritage of four centuries in three continents. (in cooperation with W. van Alphen and with contributions from H.C.A. de Kat, H.C. van Nederveen Meerkerk and L.B. Wevers), Zwolle: Waanders/[Zeist]: Netherlands Department for Conservation, [2002]. 479 pp. -Gert J. Oostindie, M.H. Bartels ,Hollanders uit en thuis; Archeologie, geschiedenis en bouwhistorie gedurende de VOC-tijd in de Oost, de West en thuis; Cultuurhistorie van de Nederlandse expansie. Hilversum: Verloren, 2002, 190 pp. [SCHI-reeks 2.], E.H.P. Cordfunke, H. Sarfatij (eds) -Henk Schulte Nordholt, Tony Day, Fluid iron; State formation in Southeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002, xii + 339 pp. -Nick Stanley, Nicholas Thomas ,Double vision; Art histories and colonial histories in the Pacific. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, xii + 289 pp., Diane Losche, Jennifer Newell (eds) -Heather Sutherland, David Henley, Jealousy and justice; The indigenous roots of colonial rule in northern Sulawesi. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 2002, 106 pp. -Gerard Termorshuizen, Piet Hagen, Journalisten in Nederland; Een persgeschiedenis in portretten 1850-2000. Amsterdam: Arbeiderspers, 2002, 600 pp. -Amy E. Wassing, Bart de Prins, Voor keizer en koning; Leonard du Bus de Gisignies 1780-1849; Commissaris-Generaal van Nederlands-Indië. Amsterdam: Balans, 2002, 288 pp. -Robert Wessing, Michaela Appel, Hajatan in Pekayon; Feste bei Heirat und Beschneidung in einem westjavanischen Dorf. München: Verlag des Staatlichen Museums für Völkerkunde, 2001, 160 pp. [Münchner Beiträge zur Völkerkunde, Beiheft I.] -Nicholas J. White, Matthew Jones, Conflict and confrontation in South East Asia, 1961-1965; Britain, the United States, Indonesia and the creation of Malaysia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, xv + 325 pp. -Edwin Wieringa, Peter Riddell, Islam and the Malay-Indonesian world; Transmission and responses. London: Hurst, 2001, xvii + 349 pp. -Edwin Wieringa, Stuart Robson ,Javanese-English dictionary. (With the assistance of Yacinta Kurniasih), Singapore: Periplus, 2002, 821 pp., Singgih Wibisono (eds) -Henk Schulte Nordholt, Edward Aspinall ,Local power and politics in Indonesia; Decentralisation and democracy. Sin gapore: Institute of Southeast Asian studies, 2003, 296 pp. [Indonesia Assessment.], Greg Fealy (eds) -Henke Schulte Nordholt, Coen Holtzappel ,Riding a tiger; Dilemmas of integration and decentralization in Indonesia. Amsterdam: Rozenburg, 2002, 320 pp., Martin Sanders, Milan Titus (eds) -Henk Schulte Nordholt, Minako Sakai, Beyond Jakarta; Regional autonomy and local society in Indonesia. Adelaide: Crawford House, 2002, xvi + 354 pp. -Henk Schulte Nordholt, Damien Kingsbury ,Autonomy and disintegration in Indonesia. London; RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, xiv + 219 pp., Harry Aveling (eds)

<p><span>“Desak Terdesak” merupakan sebuah film fiksi pendek yang berangkat dari isu tentang kurangnya “penghargaan” <span>terhadap perempuan Bali. Karya ini mengangkat posisi serta status perempuan Bali dalam hukum adat yang<br /><span>selalu berada di bawah kekuasaan laki-laki. Hal tersebut berkaitan erat dan didasari oleh keyakinan mayoritas <span>penduduk Bali, sistem kekerabatan patrilineal, sistem wangsa dan petuah-petuah orang tua. Dalam film fiksi <span>pendek ini pengkarya berusaha menghadirkan konflik sosial yang lebih tajam dengan menggabungkan <span>permasalahan kekerasan dalam rumah tangga, tekanan ekonomi, dan ketidakberdayaan melawan hukum <span>adat yang membuat posisi perempuan Bali bernama Desak semakin terdesak. Sejak kecil perempuan Bali<br /><span>dididik untuk mandiri, bekerja keras dan bukan mahkluk lemah yang harus dilindungi. Orang tua mengajarkan <span>untuk selalu menjunjung tinggi martabat dan siap berkorban demi nama baik keluarga. Perempuan Bali telah <span>diberikan persamaan hak dalam memperoleh pendidikan, pekerjaan dan mengutarakan pendapat, namun <span>disisi lain mereka tetap diikat oleh berbagai sistem yang berlaku di Bali. “Desak Terdesak” berdurasi 20 menit, <span>menggunakan pendekatan Realis medan Hollywood Klasik sebagai bentuk karya dengan plot linier yang<br /><span>sesuai aksi peristiwa. Dialog dalam film ini menggunakan bahasa Bali dialek Singaraja untuk memperkuat <span>setting dan penokohan yang dibangun dalam cerita. Beberapa sumber pustaka seperti Filsafat Timur, Sebuah <span>Pengantar Hinduisme dan Buddhisme, Perempuan Bali, Hukum Adat Bali, Hak Waris Perempuan Bali dan <span>Kesalahpahaman Kasta digunakan sebagai rujukan dalam menciptakan karya ini. Film yang diilhami dari <span>kisah nyata ini memberikan sedikit pengetahuan, informasi, pemahaman kepada pembaca serta penonton<br /><span>terkait posisi perempuan dalam hukum dan pergaulan adat masyarakat Bali yang menganut sistem kekerabatan <span>patrilineal.<br /><span><strong>Kata kunci: </strong><span>film, perempuan, Bali, budaya, sistem, bentuk.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><span><span><span><em>“Desak Terdesak” is a film of short fiction based on the issues of the lack of “appreciation” towards Balinese </em><span><em>women. This work tells about the position and status of Balinese women in the custom that they are always </em><span><em>under the men’s power. It is closely related to and based on the most Balinese belief, the patrilineal kinship </em><span><em>system, </em><span>wangsa <span><em>system, and the parental teachings. In the short fiction film, the creator tries to present the </em><span><em>sharper social conflict by combining the problems of domestic violance, economic depression, and the</em><br /><span><em>helpnessness against customary law that makes Balinese women namely Desak is more distressed. Sinceyoung, </em><span><em>Balinese women have been educated to be independent, working hard, and not to be a poor being that must</em><br /><span><em>be protected. Parents teach to always uphold dignity and to be ready to sacrifice in the name of family’s </em><span><em>reputation. Balinese women have been given similar rights in getting education, employment and proposing </em><span><em>opinion, on the other hand, they are tied by various systems held in Bali. “Desak Terdesak” has 20 minutes </em><span><em>duration using Realism and Classical Hollywood approach as a form of work with linear plots corresponding to </em><span><em>the action of events. Dialogue in the film uses Balinese language with Singaraja dialect to strengthen setting</em><br /><span><em>and characterization built in the story. Library sources like Eastern Philosophy, An Introductory To Hinduism </em><span><em>AndBuddhism, Balinese Women, Balinese Custom, Hereditary Right Of Balinese Women And Misconceptions Of Caste is used as a reference in creating this work. The film that has been inspired by a real story</em><br /><span><em>provides little knowledge,informations, the reader as well as the audience understanding related to the women </em><span><em>position in law and in customary intercommunication of Balinese community that follow patrilineal kinship</em><br /><span><em>system.</em><br /><span><strong><em>Keywords: </em></strong><span><em>film, woman, Bali, culture, system, form.</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span></p>

The object of this research is to analyze the functions and meanings of the characters of Wayang Potehi or Potehi puppet by taking the play of Shi Jin Kwie. The play is a popular fiction story which was later adapted into the story of Prabu Lisanpuro in Javanese theater (ketoprak). The results of the research found the organology structure of Wayang Potehi. It consists of 2, namely (1) parts of the body; head, hand, feet, and (2) clothing; along with ornaments and additional accessories such as swords and hats. The head section can be identified as the interpretation of the puppet character. For instance, an antagonist character depicted as if he was using a Balinese leak mask with his mouth open and angry. The clothes could be the interpretation of social status. For example, the villagers wear plain clothes without ornaments, while the nobles use yellow, red clothing with a dragon/ phoenix pattern. There are 4 types of character design in this show, specifically (1) the firm/ wise character, (2) the entertaining character, (3) the functionaries/ officials/ priyayi character, (4) the antagonist character. Especially for entertaining characters, it has a dual function; to return the underlying causes of the story and become the spy of the enemy. The methods used in this research are personality theory and functional theory approaches. Keywords: potehi character design, Shi Jin Kwie, Function of potehi

Metaphors of 'game' and 'play' are increasingly popular in academic writing, partly because games themselves are becoming increasingly important to media experience, and partly because something in the 'game' idea seems to describe the post-modern experience. However, the metaphor sometimes forgets what games can be like in practice. What I want to do, then, is go a round or two with the term, to question what the metaphor invokes. Round I: 'Game'? Games are played on a dedicated field -- a board, a screen, a playing-ground -- which is marked off so that in some sense it becomes a separate 'space', Huizinga's "magic circle". Play begins, and then, Huizinga argues, it is over, its effects lost (13). Players choose to play, agreeing to arbitrary rules controlling the game 'world'; goals and penalties are agreed in advance. Thus the gameworld provides an oasis of order in a chaotic, unruly world (Huizinga again); despite (sometimes) volumes of rules, games themselves are less complex and more clearly defined than "the casual and confused reign of everyday existence" (Berger, qtd. in Holquist 122). The sanctity of the game-space offers something more than mere order. The construction of order through arbitrary rules temporarily dissolves the significance of the outside world. Players concentrate wholly on the game -- on the dice or the puck or the pawn; good gameplay (to use Banks's expression) makes you forget yourself and the passage of time, not operating consciously but going with the flow. Play, writes Csikszentmihalyi, "is going. It is what happens after all the decisions are made -- when 'let's go' is the last thing one remembers" (45). It is a difficult state to attain but it seems valuable, from academia's overly rationalistic perspective, to get out of our heads and let some other sense drive for a while. Games engage different senses. Players use skills not ordinarily valued, striving for self-fulfilling perfection. Mundane time is linear, but games are full of diversionary, goal-deferring loops -- "the movement which is play has no goal which brings it to an end; rather it renews itself in constant repetition" (Gadamer 93). Gameplay is unpredictable; it shuttles back and forth, unsettled, dynamic, open to chance. You cannot surely predict the outcome. And then you play again. We like, too, the superficiality of games. They are useless, wilfully inefficient, pursued solely for the pleasures they provide. Games can be seen as representative -- of power struggles, of unspeakable impulses -- but the action is distanced from the self. Imbued in an (in)animate piece or a disguised self, games license performance, freedom from the mundane self. Most importantly, game goals aren't 'really' important; we don't 'really' care; "no chains of causes and effects, means and ends, are supposed to connect the isolated area of play with the real world or ordinary life (Riezler 511). Thus, reasons the theorist, the gameworld is a privileged space. Having freely chosen to play and consented to pre-determined constraints, players slip the controlling lead of the superego in pursuit of mastery. Difficult impulses are exorcised -- cathartically, if you like -- in the safety of the gamespace, the temporary "otherwhere" of experience where nothing really matters; no lives are actually sacrificed; no deaths are permanent; no loss is irreversible. Games are interactive, simultaneously controlled and risky. If one excels, one is celebrated; if one loses -- ah well, it was only a game. Afterwards it ceases to matter: handshakes all round and down to the pub. Or so the theorists tell us. Round II: The Magic Circle My brother and his friends liked to play Skirmish. But afterwards, they were stiff and sore, with bruises lasting for months or longer. Players are regularly injured, permanently maimed, or even killed while playing those games we call 'sport'. True, you might forget yourself while playing, but what about afterwards? The embodiedness of players -- the constancy of muscle memory, bruises and scars -- imprints lasting effects on minds and flesh, inextricably binding the game world to the mundane. Besides physical injuries, however, are the continuity of memory and the excess of feelings (affect). Games, after all, are played by people, "who only indirectly and ambiguously share in the perfect order of their games" (Holquist 115), stuck as we are with irrational feelings. Losers feel sore, disgruntled; someone else has proven cleverer or faster or trickier; they never quite got in the flow; it wasn't fun. So when Stephenson writes, "play is enjoyed, no matter who wins" (46) -- well, no. People sulk, they cry, they become vengeful: people don't like losing -- witness the origins of football hooliganism. Perhaps the cost of being rationally detached from the outcome of a game, of leaving the mundane, ratiocinatic world behind, is an irrational, affective investment that sometimes matters when it shouldn't. To describe games as discrete, then, assumes that people are disembodied, completely rational and extremely forgetful: these are the only terms under which gameplay can be "detached". Huizinga and Caillois posit such players when they describe games as 'separate', 'unproductive', 'unreal'. They let the metaphor take over, mistaking form for practice. Somewhat extremely, Gadamer argues, "the real subject of the game ... is not the player, but instead the game itself" (95). No game, however, exists prior to or without players, and no players are free from the 'irrational' of their bodies and senses. Round III: Representation John Banks's "Controlling Gameplay" reminds us of the 'other senses' invoked in play. Games, he argued, are never simply representational. Gameplay is a forward momentum, engrossing and unselfconscious. He was right, but I want to recall, momentarily, the representativeness of games. It is, after all, partly their commitment to symbols that makes people willing to (be) hurt in a game, even to risk their lives. Besides the irrational commitment to the symbol engendered by the affective gameworld, is the representational content. The violence debate hinges around the detachment of the gameworld: theorists argue that in gamespace, it's 'not real; we're 'just playing'; "things within this area mean what we order them to mean. They are cut off from their meanings in the so-called real world or ordinary life" (Riezler 511). The game frame theoretically negates commitment to content and underlying meanings (see Bologh). Fink reminds us, though, that content always draws on the world of experience: it "is always partly, but never wholly, the creation of fantasy. It always has to do with real objects [or ideas], which fantasy transforms into play objects" (qtd. in Anchor 92). Hodge and Tripp argue that, although play modality undermines or inverts meanings, symbols retain their mundane meaning: "the surface content of the image coexists as part of the content. An image of violence is still an image of violence, and viewers who enjoy it are still endorsing those impulses in themselves" (117). Games invoke the imaginary, the symbolic and the sensual in ways beyond ordinary 'consciousness', but that never makes it insignificant. Memory and affect again. Structural anthropology provides ample evidence that games represent society (see, for example, Cheska). Clifford Geertz showed how games structurally reflect (often backwards) the values of a society. The game, he argued, reminds players of the overlap between their own and their society's values (27). Thus games function as social ritual (see Bakhtin, Caillois or Huizinga). But ritual, Handelman shows, is "how society should be" (189) -- in which case he is arguing that society should be ordered, rigidly rule-bound, oriented towards arbitrary goals and values, competitive, and simplistically representational. People -- and indeed, existence -- are complex, messy, defiant and irrational. "Not recognising the bounds between stylised game and causal reality is to do violence to the complexity of existence" (Holquist 121). Round IV: Structure Another remove from content, is structure. In Western society games are agonistic. Huizinga explicitly argued that their value lay in striving for glory over one's fellows, in proving oneself superior: that is what winning is. Although theorists now value the process more than the goals, gameplay nevertheless consists in trying to beat your opponent. Games are about conquest. Even those games featuring teamwork only require cooperation to vanquish opponents -- to inflict on them the humiliation, disappointment and (however infinitesimally) diminished social status that inevitably accompany losing. Moreover, there are hierarchies within teams. A good point guard is never as well paid as a good forward; the Dungeon Master or GM determines the 'fate' of the other players. Just as players and teams are hierarchised, so are leagues, reflecting Western society's valorisation of hierarchy. Many must be conquered for the individual to triumph. While players may freely accede to rules, they don't decide them -- they are governed conservatively. Rules may evolve organically but become reified, regulated top-down, detailed knowledge itself becoming a source of hierarchical authority. Game rules are not folk-knowledge; they are dictated, published, refereed: another source of contest. Time The game metaphor has its uses. Certainly what happens when one disappears or is lost in gameplay is worth serious attention. But to pretend that games are microcosmic, free, without affect, effect or meaning, and that they end with the final bell, is to forget the player, who lives on in the society reflected by the game. References Anchor, Robert. "History and Play: Johan Huizinga and his Critics." History and Theory 17 (1966): 63-93. Banks, John. "Controlling Gameplay." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 1.5 (1998). 15 Oct. 2000 <http://www.api-network.com/mc/9812/game.php>. Bologh, Roslyn Wallach. "On Fooling Around: A Phenomenological Analysis of Playfulness." The Annals of Phenomenological Sociology 1 (1976): 1113-25. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Stith Bennett. "An Exploratory Model of Play." American Anthropologist. 44 (1974): 45-58. Gadamer, Hans-Georg. "The Ontology of the Work of Art and Its Hermeneutical Significance. Play as the Clue to Ontological Explanation." Truth and Method. (1960). Trans. and ed. Garrett Barden and John Cumming. London: Sheed and Ward, 1975. 91-119. Geertz, Clifford. "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight." Daedalus 101.1 (1972): 1-37. Handelman, Don. "Play and Ritual: Complementary Frames of Meta-Communication." It's a Funny Thing, Humor. Ed. Anthony J Chapman and Hugh Foot. Oxford: Pergamon, 1976. 185-92. Holquist, Michael. "How to Play Utopia: Some Brief Notes on the Distinctiveness of Utopian Fiction." Game, Play, Literature. Ed. Jacques Ehrmann. Boston: Beacon, 1968. 106-23. Hodge, Robert, and David Tripp. Children and Television: A Semiotic Approach. Cambridge: Polity, 1986. Huizinga, Johan. Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture. Trans. anonymous. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1949 [1944]. Riezler, Kurt. "Play and Seriousness." The Journal of Philosophy. 38 (1941): 507-17. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Rebecca Farley. "Game." M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3.5 (2000). [your date of access] <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/game.php>. Chicago style: Rebecca Farley, "Game," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3, no. 5 (2000), <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/game.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Rebecca Farley. (2000) Game. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 3(5). <http://www.api-network.com/mc/0010/game.php> ([your date of access]).