Biopower dan Kontestasi Budaya dalam Cerpen Si Cantik Yang Tak Boleh Keluar Malam Karya Eka Kurniawan: Perspektif Foucault dan Williams
Abstract
The short story "Si Cantik Yang Tak Boleh Luar Malam" by Eka Kurniawan represents the practice of regulating women's bodies in everyday life. The prohibition on going out at night experienced by the female character in the short story does not appear as an explicit legal rule, but rather operates through family norms, discourses of danger, and normalized social surveillance. This study aims to describe biopower and cultural contestation in the short story "Si Cantik Yang Tak Boleh Luar Malam" from the perspective of Foucault and Williams. The type of research used is qualitative-descriptive with a sociology of literature approach. Data of the research are textual quotations, narrative structures, and character expressions found in the short story, gathered by close reading and note-taking techniques, and analyzed using Foucault’s concept of biopower and Raymond Williams’ theory of dominant, residual, and emergent culture. The results show that the prohibition on going out at night works as a practice of biopower that produces obedience through fear and normalization, while also reflecting a dominant patriarchal culture that is still supported by residual values about women's morality. On the other hand, this short story also presents an emergent culture in the form of a desire for freedom and self-determination, which is reflected in the emotional experiences of the female character. This experience can be read as a structure of feeling, namely the tension of collective feelings that have not been articulated ideologically and culminate in a tragic escape. Thus, this short story shows literature as an arena for the struggle of power relations and cultural dynamics in contemporary Indonesian society.
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