Speaking through the Silence Narratives, Social Conventions, and Poer in Java [Hardcover]

Uncovering the structures and functions of conversational narratives uttered within natural social networks, Laine Berman shows how working-class Javanese women discursively construct identity and meaning within the rigid constraints of an hierarchical social order. She does this by identifying the silences, the unsaid , and by revealing both the structure and function of silence in terms of its indexical reference to local meaning. It is here that the force of the Javanese language as used in everyday interaction shows itself to be an extremely potent philosophical entity as well as a means of social control. Thus, at least in regard to the urban poor, the book boldly questions the difference between traditional definitions of Javanese elegance and oppression. This study will contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of language use, to the linguistic knowledge of Indonesia and Java, and to such basic linguistic issues as narrative structure and function, speech levels and styles, and indexicality features.

...Bermans work is thorough and detailed and it rewards close reading. Indonesianist academics and more general anthropologists and linguists should all find this book essential reading. It is a strong work and will undoubtedly find its well deserved place within the canon of texts on Indonesia. --Inside Indonesia

...Berman's book is one of the most useful and original contributions to understanding Javanese society, particularly in terms of explaining how models of social organisation imply power relationships...[It] offers a refreshing and necessary insight into the most fundamental aspect of a culture--that of Java--which, extrapolated, is the guiding principle of an imposed state culture--that of Indonesia. --Asian Studies Association of Australia