Abstract

Even within religion, the creativity of imagination offers an invaluable defense against the tendencies towards dogma and absolutism. It also provides spaces living and experiencing life in diverse ways. This paper discusses the different facets of creative imagination in religious art and literature forms by comparing Isaac Bashevis Singer’s In My Father’s Court with Wayang shadow theater in Indonesia. I will show that they possess similar features demonstrating a reflection on religious law, creativity and everyday life. In Singer’s work, the synagogue is a theater, and Singer’s father functions in the same way the puppet master, or Dalang. operates in Wayang theater. This allows for the negotiations between religious law and the living community.