Volltext - ub-dok: der Dokumentenserver der UB Trier - Universität ...

djanturan, sets the scene and mood in eloquent language to an accompaniment of the sacred
gamelan music; the other, tjarijos, is usually a shorter form given without background music,
and describes minor scenes or off-stage action rather than setting. In addition, Cookie employs
the dalang’s formal emotive songs, called suluk, to express the state of mind of a character.
Cookie takes on these multiple voices borrowed from the dalang, who uses them in the wayang
kulit
to amplify and elaborate on the action of a play. Narration provides exposition
of past events, interprets characters’ feelings and thoughts, and comments on
events. Suluk establish moods and emotional states and vary the tempo of a
performance. (Brandon, 29-31)
Brandon points out that in ‘Western drama, plot action and characterisation are achieved
almost entirely through the single medium of dialogue’ while in the wayang kulit this accounts
for only about one third of the performance (Brandon, 31). It is especially through his
development of Cookie that Koch has woven the two thirds represented by djanturan, tjarijos
and suluk, the elaborate movements of the puppets, and the gamelan music into his novel,
thereby gaining a unique tool for plumbing the depths of his characters.
Cookie is thus a first-person narrator whose important personal voice is capable of
revealing the veiled souls of his colleagues. His own voice, however, often disappears into
self-effacing narration which can be compared to tjarijos. This can be seen when he borrows
the eloquent opening djanturan of The Reincarnation of Rama, which begins with a gamelan
melody while the dalang whispers:
‘The hills and mountains are my abode, may the strength of the wind and
storm be mine.’ He reaches above his head to the coconut-oil lamp which
casts the shadows on the screen. Adjusting its flaming wick, he prays silently
... (Brandon, 84)
Cookie offers his literary rendition of the wayang’s gamelan music, endowing the hills,
mountains, wind and storm with musical powers, while he sings a suluk to invoke nature’s
help, emphasised with the first lines of The Reincarnation of Rama, ‘May silence prevail’
(Brandon, 86).
There are gale warnings on the radio tonight; a strong wind is racing through
the pines and eucalypts above the top paddock. The lamp hisses like thought; I
- 135 -