The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity
The role of performing art in one of the world's most diverse and complex societies

Winner of a 2025 Nancy Staub Publications Award from UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette)

This book is the first comprehensive overview of Javanese performing arts from their origins to their dynamic present. Renowned scholar and musician Sumarsam draws from a lifetime of immersion in both wayang and gamelan to guide readers through the concept of the "in-between," revealing how the interplay of dualisms—myth and history, sacred and secular, personal and cultural—forms the bedrock of Javanese performance. Rigorously researched historical case studies reveal the intricate relationship between histories and mythologies in Java. Wayang, accompanied by gamelan, is a multimedia performance imbued with rich historical, aesthetic, religious, and emotional associations. Sumarsam delves into this intricate, profound, and ever-evolving art form, exploring its diverse manifestations and venues, from courtly village entertainment-cum-ritual to palace-based aesthetic expressions of cultural proficiency; from coastal mercantile entrepots to the verdant wet rice terraces of Java; from colonial plantation and textile factory cultures to communities centered around contemporary industrial estates and creative economy initiatives. An essential resource for scholars, musicians, and enthusiasts of wayang and gamelan, The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts offers an unparalleled immersion into the heart of traditional Javanese performing arts, revealing their profound impact on Javanese culture, identity, and artistic expression.

1144701305
The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity
The role of performing art in one of the world's most diverse and complex societies

Winner of a 2025 Nancy Staub Publications Award from UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette)

This book is the first comprehensive overview of Javanese performing arts from their origins to their dynamic present. Renowned scholar and musician Sumarsam draws from a lifetime of immersion in both wayang and gamelan to guide readers through the concept of the "in-between," revealing how the interplay of dualisms—myth and history, sacred and secular, personal and cultural—forms the bedrock of Javanese performance. Rigorously researched historical case studies reveal the intricate relationship between histories and mythologies in Java. Wayang, accompanied by gamelan, is a multimedia performance imbued with rich historical, aesthetic, religious, and emotional associations. Sumarsam delves into this intricate, profound, and ever-evolving art form, exploring its diverse manifestations and venues, from courtly village entertainment-cum-ritual to palace-based aesthetic expressions of cultural proficiency; from coastal mercantile entrepots to the verdant wet rice terraces of Java; from colonial plantation and textile factory cultures to communities centered around contemporary industrial estates and creative economy initiatives. An essential resource for scholars, musicians, and enthusiasts of wayang and gamelan, The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts offers an unparalleled immersion into the heart of traditional Javanese performing arts, revealing their profound impact on Javanese culture, identity, and artistic expression.

26.95 In Stock
The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity

The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity

by Sumarsam
The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity

The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity

by Sumarsam

Paperback

$26.95 
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Overview

The role of performing art in one of the world's most diverse and complex societies

Winner of a 2025 Nancy Staub Publications Award from UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette)

This book is the first comprehensive overview of Javanese performing arts from their origins to their dynamic present. Renowned scholar and musician Sumarsam draws from a lifetime of immersion in both wayang and gamelan to guide readers through the concept of the "in-between," revealing how the interplay of dualisms—myth and history, sacred and secular, personal and cultural—forms the bedrock of Javanese performance. Rigorously researched historical case studies reveal the intricate relationship between histories and mythologies in Java. Wayang, accompanied by gamelan, is a multimedia performance imbued with rich historical, aesthetic, religious, and emotional associations. Sumarsam delves into this intricate, profound, and ever-evolving art form, exploring its diverse manifestations and venues, from courtly village entertainment-cum-ritual to palace-based aesthetic expressions of cultural proficiency; from coastal mercantile entrepots to the verdant wet rice terraces of Java; from colonial plantation and textile factory cultures to communities centered around contemporary industrial estates and creative economy initiatives. An essential resource for scholars, musicians, and enthusiasts of wayang and gamelan, The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts offers an unparalleled immersion into the heart of traditional Javanese performing arts, revealing their profound impact on Javanese culture, identity, and artistic expression.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780819501264
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Publication date: 10/01/2024
Series: Music / Culture
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

SUMARSAM is Winslow-Kaplan Professor of Music at Wesleyan University. His books include Gamelan: Cultural Interaction and Musical Development in Central Java (1995) and Javanese Gamelan and the West (2013). He was the recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (2016–17), the Indonesian Presidential Satyalancana Cultural Award (2018), and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music Fellowship (2019–20).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Preface

My Birthplace

Socio-hierarchy

Paying Homage to Mbah Cåkarmå

Dualistic Interactions

Cultural Arbiter?

Coda •Acknowledgement

Note on Orthography

Introduction

Hinduization

The Magically Charged Relic of Inheritance

Myth as Conduit for Spiritual Experience and Proselytization

Overview of Chapters

Coda: The In-Between

Chapter One: Indian Origin and Inspirations: Old Javanese Literary Works and Cultural Performance

Evidence from Kakawin

Discourses on Early Javanese Music

Reflection and Discussion

Tracing and Retracing Indic Roots

Chapter Two: Central-Periphery, Court-Rural Dynamic: Performing Arts in the Move

The Panji and Damarwulan Story

East Javanese Stories on the Move

East Javanese Stories as Celebrated •Performances in Javanese Courts

The Case
of Bhima Svarga: Wayang Golèk in Tegal

Chapter Three: Linking the Present to the Past through Preaching, Ritual, And Levity

Intertextuality

Affect, Wayang and Pengajian

Dakwah, Humor, and Popular Music: Ki Joko Goro-Goro

The History and Religiousity of Gamelan Sekatèn

Chapter Four: The 19th-to 20th-Century and Contemporary Discourses on Wayang

Light and Power: Wayang as a Shadow Play

Colonial and Political Trajectory

Allegory, Meaning, and Transformation

Preservation and Development

Concluding Thoughts

Transhistorical Complexity and Ambiguity

Incongruity

Politicization

Allegory

Patronage and the Advance of Culture

Coda

References

Glossary

Notes

Illustrations

Figures

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