This essay will examine the role of cultural memory in an age of global interconnection. It will discuss how the traditional idea of culture is threatened by the “culture industry,” information technology and the media. In the West, there seems to be a loss of culture’s function as an engine of change and reform. But throughout the history of South East Asia (and especially in Indonesia) one sees a both a process of appropriation of ideas from the outside, and at (...) the same time, the maintenance of a deeper cultural identity that is resistant to complete control. It is an unconscious memory – or a cultural reflex – present within the languages and stories and rationalities. I will explain this with reading of Michel de Certeau. And I will show how the Wayang story of the “Death of Semar” is emblematic of this idea. The awareness of these old processes of appropriation and resistance are extremely important in our age of global networks of power that attempt to impose, various religious, political, financial and legal structures. (shrink)

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. (shrink)