Social Inequality in Contemporary Indonesian Novels: A Bourdieusian Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59188/jurnalsosains.v6i5.32755Keywords:
social inequality, sociology of literature, pierre bourdieu, habitus, capital, contemporary Indonesian novelAbstract
Social inequality in contemporary Indonesian novels appears in various forms, including gender, political, social-class, and educational inequality. This study examines five contemporary Indonesian novels Saman (Ayu Utami, 1998), Pulang (Leila S. Chudori, 2012), Lelaki Harimau (Eka Kurniawan, 2004), Cantik Itu Luka (Eka Kurniawan, 2002), and Orang-Orang Biasa (Andrea Hirata, 2019) through Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, capital, and field. The study aims to identify and compare the forms of social inequality represented in the five novels and explain how habitus, capital, and field shape the reproduction of inequality within each narrative.Using a qualitative descriptive multiple-case study design, all five novels were treated as primary data and analysed through directed content analysis and systematic thematic coding. The analysis identified four major forms of inequality. Political inequality was the most dominant theme (40%), while gender, social-class, and educational inequality each accounted for 20%. The findings indicate that these forms of inequality are closely interconnected. Saman connects political repression with control over women’s bodies; Pulang demonstrates how cultural capital may lose its value within the domestic political field;Lelaki Harimau portrays tensions between village habitus and elite social capital; Cantik Itu Luka links colonial trauma with intergenerational class stratification; and Orang-Orang Biasa highlights unequal access to education and the persistence of poverty. Overall, the findings show that contemporary Indonesian fiction represents inequality as interconnected forms of capital, consistent with Bourdieu’s framework. The study’s novelty lies in applying a consistently operationalised Bourdieusian framework across five novels, providing a replicable model for teaching and conducting sociological literary analysis
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