Sri Asih

A Heroine Between Cosmopolitan and Tradition

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211110.025How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Sri Asih; Agency; Cosmopolitan and Tradition; Indonesian Comics

Abstract

According to Boneff, Sri Asih is the first superhero comic in Indonesia. Sri Asih is depicted as a female superhero in Javanese traditional dress and make-up, similar to heroic female characters in wayang kulit epics. Sri Asih has superpower and optimal intelligence. The depiction of Sri Asih is in contrast to the depiction of Nani, Sri Asih’s alter-ego who is modern but not very sharp-witted. Furthermore, Indonesia’s process in embracing the modern world at that time was also illustrated through various modern technology products such as airplanes, cruise ships, world metropolitan cities such as Singapore, New York, London, Macau. In the depiction of modernity, Sri Asih appears in traditional dress and make-up. This juxtapose illustrates the socio-cultural uncertainty when Indonesia wants to be modern, but also wants to establish its nationalist identity at the same time. The juxtapose also led to the replacement of Sri Asih comics with wayangan comics which later popularized Kosasih as a national comic artist. This paper analyzes the Sri Asih comics as an intersection of capitals, female agencies in comics and trend of Indonesian popular culture.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Lilawati Kurnia
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/11/21
TI  - Sri Asih
BT  - Proceedings of the International University Symposium on Humanities and Arts 2020 (INUSHARTS 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 172
EP  - 177
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211110.025
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211110.025
ID  - Kurnia2021
ER  -