Debate - Brill

copy bernard arps et al 2017 | doi 10116322134379-17301007This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial 40 International Public License (cc-by-nc 40)

Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- enVolkenkunde 173 (2017) 115ndash131 bki

brillcombki

Debate

Bernard Arps Helen Creese Matthew Isaac Cohen and Kathy Foley

Bernard ArpsTall tree nest of the wind The Javanese shadow-play Dewa Ruci performed by KiAnom Soeroto A study in performance philology Singapore nus Press 2016 648 pp

Tall Tree nest of the wind is an extraordinary rich volume in which Ben Arpsdevelops and explicates a new field of study a philology of performance Theprincipal purpose of this book is to demonstrate what a philological manner ofinvestigation can offer to the study of performance (p 27) Arpsrsquos study how-ever is nomere defence of philological practices but instead in presenting andilluminating a lsquoreformed philologyrsquo points towards a revisioning of philologicalmethodology as a whole

Both philology and wayang are concerned fundamentally with interpreta-tion and contextualization From this basic premise the bookrsquos core descriptiveand analytical focus is brought to bear on performance through the lens of fivekey characteristics of philological method that consider both written and per-formance texts to be artefactual (that is they are not just material but alsomade) interpretable intertextual contextual and historical These intercon-nected domains of enquiry help to explain why a single historical performanceof a shadow-play in this case a performance by Ki AnomSoeroto of thewayangshadow-play Dewa Ruci in Amsterdam in 1987 has the form it does and whymodes of philological enquiry enable a deeper more extensive understandingof its noetic and affective dimensions

At first glance Arpsrsquos choice to present his study of a specific historicalwayang performance as an artefact wrapped up in the mantle of philologyrsquosfoundational formmdashthe text editionmdashseems somewhat idiosyncratic This isparticularly the case because the philological format has far-reaching effectssince it transmutes andmonumentalizes the performance and creates a philo-logical object for careful study and reflection (pp 8ndash9) In moving beyondthe transient materiality of the performance event the philological approachthus creates a textual artefact for readers that transcends the experience of itsoriginal live audience Arpsrsquos philological treatment of performance as an edi-tion with its introduction translation transcript illustrations and explana-

Downloaded from Brillcom03182022 073012PMvia free access

116 debate

Bijdragen tot de Taal- Land- en Volkenkunde 173 (2017) 115ndash131

tory commentary therefore becomes a way to study historical performance inall its fullness

Yet the 1987 Dewa Ruci performance in Amsterdam was lsquonot particularlyexceptionalrsquo (p 19) Why then is it deserving of so much scholarly and espe-cially philological attention There are a number of reasons The Dewa Ruciis lsquoan emblematic play in an emblematic genrersquo (p 6) Bratasenarsquos quest forenlightenment embodies Javanese multistranded and multilayered lsquoBuddhicrsquoreligiosity Such intricate philosophical and mystical exegesis is not for thefaint-hearted One of the singular achievements of this book is in opening upsuch a rich vein of understanding about the ways in which this religiosity con-tinues to appeal to the traditionally inclined in predominantly Islamic Indone-sia Like wayang itself Arpsrsquos philological project on lsquonarrative worldmakingrsquobecomes lsquoindexicalrsquo by pointing to and calling up innumerable intertextualhistorical and contextual associations from lsquowayangrsquos storehouse of knowledgeabout the past for the presentrsquo (p 61)

The very fine translation is the key entry point to lsquothe form and craftsman-shiprsquo (p 7) of the historical performance It is possible to read this book simplyfor the delight of its story and language But unlike traditional textual philologythe philology of performance also requires the representation of lsquonon-textualmodalitiesrsquo The result is the inclusion in the edition of explicit information onmusic andmusical atmosphere on settings andaction andon illustrations thatbring the play to life The story and characters already familiar tome from clas-sical Javanese poetic traditions are enhanced by the performative elements ofthis edition

Access to metatextual information and detail is provided by the exten-sive annotations which clarify particular instances of language music andpuppetry The annotations provide access to the performance process to theinterpretation of the dalang (puppeteer) and especially to the wayang tra-ditions and stories on which the performance is built The annotations domore than point out the metaphorical and allegorical elements that a reader(or an audience member) would never notice They also explicate borrow-ings from and responses to performance practices and to Javanese textualtraditions more broadly Allusions often comic or risqueacute to the social andpolitical context of the original 1987 performance including to the develop-ment and social policies of the New Order period and to the presence andexperiences of the performers themselves in Amsterdam are woven into theperformance and are equally deserving of explication for twenty-first-centuryreaders

Extensive annotations of this kind both help and hinder the reader Somemay even consider these annotations which run to 136 finely printed pages to


debate 117


be excessive But wayang itself is lsquopervasively explanatoryrsquo (p 42) and philol-ogyrsquos own lsquopeculiar explanatorinessrsquo (p 41) proves to be an effective meansof generating understandings and insights Nevertheless although I did notneed to be persuaded of their value and it would clearly have been imprac-tical to use footnotes I soon stopped turning regularly to the annotationsduring my reading of the text so as not to interrupt the storymdashthough I didreturn to them at the end of my reading In the process of back-referencingthe text I re-read (and enjoyed) many sections of the script The bookrsquos strongbut flexible binding facilitates this kind of toing and froing but at times itwas hard not to wish for an electronic version in order to explore ideas andhalf-remembered impressions that are not included in the index but wouldbe enabled by even a simple keyword search Even more effective for sucha big (in every sense of the word) book would be an interactive digital for-mat (see for example the recent nus PhD thesis on wayang kontemporer byMiguel Escobar (2015) which incorporates glosses videos and texts) Whilea digital format may be a step too far for a project so long in the making Iwould certainly have welcomed the opportunity to listen to the recordings ofthe 1987 performance that lsquoserve as companions to the editionrsquo (p vii) andare cross-referenced in the transcript and annotations but no longer appearto be available or accessible beyond a small number of specialist library collec-tions worldwide It is unfortunate that a reissue of the 1987 recording was notable to be negotiated and incorporated into this project Perhaps it is not toolate

By any measure Tall tree nest of the wind is a complex and challengingread but one that will be rewarded by multiple re-readings It is a book todip in and out of and philologists and performance studies experts alike willreadily find their own way along its rich and diverse paths I came to thisbook primarily as a textual philologist but learned much about performanceAlthough philology aims primarily lsquoto make sense of textsrsquo (Pollock 2009) andthe lsquorelations between textsrsquo (Turner 2014) it has become marginalized inthe post-colonial academic world and has been the target of indignant andsometimes misconstrued critique Arpsrsquos careful explanation and validation ofthe value and virtue of philological methodologies is balm to a philologistrsquossoul He demonstrates persuasively that although a philological approachmay presume greater knowledge of a text (or performance) on the part ofthe philologist than on that of the original author (or performer) or of acontemporary native speaker such a stance which carries lsquothe advantage ofhindsight and broader learningrsquo (p 49) may indeed be warranted Textualexpertise can reveal a greater range of meanings than those of participants bydrawing philological attention to matters that were not present or expressly


118 debate


evoked during the event As it draws its readers into Bratasenarsquos quest to findlsquothe whence and whither of beingrsquo Tall tree nest of the wind is a case in point

Helen CreeseSchool of Languages and Cultures The University of Queensland

hcreeseuqeduau

References

Escobar Manuel (2015)Wayang kontemporer Innovations inwayang kulit [PhD disser-tation National University of Singapore httpcwa-weborgdissertationwayang-disindexphp]

Pollock Sheldon (2009) lsquoFuture philology The fate of a soft science in a hard worldrsquoCritical Inquiry 35ndash4931ndash61

Turner James (2014) Philology The forgotten origins of the modern humanities Prince-ton Princeton University Press

As a form of traditional theatre wayang kulit is a continuously changing artStructures and patterns are received from the past new ideas and impulsesare introduced local conditions are recognized and plays are created mod-elling others to come The performance documented in Bernard Arpsrsquos pio-neering work of performance philology is the canonical shadow puppet playDewa Ruci as performed by Ki Anom Soeroto at a Dutch international pup-pet festival in 1987 It represents the apogee of the Surakarta courtly styleThough still taught in courses and conservatoires its classical norms are todayoftenmore honoured in breach than in practice Changes in this traditionwereongoing even back in the cautious 1980s In his copious and erudite annota-tions Arpsmentions the inclusion of so-called rural-stylemood songs (sulukanpedesaan) slower singing tempos narrative introductions to scenes empha-sizing novelistic descriptions of settings over poetic descriptions of charac-ters Javanizations of Indonesian phrases indirect references to Indonesianstate ideology the employment of a script writer and various other signsof modernization But these modifications are subtle and within traditionrsquosconstraints Arps suggests that Ki Anomrsquos studied classicism in Amsterdammight have been enhanced due to the need he felt as an ethnic nationalistto represent a peak of Indonesian culture Modern musical instruments likeelectric guitars or synthesizers are eschewed There is no filmic prologue norflashbacks no dialogues with female vocalists no frame-breaking antics The


debate 119


pakem or lsquoclassical rulesrsquo (p 54) established by the early twentieth century areheeded

What then is the value of revisiting an overtly classicist performance fromthreedecadespastOne reason is thatAnomremains ahighly respecteddalangin contemporary Java and while his performance style has evolved since the1980s there is much continuity with this performance which took place at thepeak of his national popularity Another is that elite wayang experts includ-ing those helming the national associations still hold Anom in the highestregard they regularly listen to his audiocassette recordings from the 1980s(transferred typically to mp3) thus scrupulously reinforcing the pakem Anomespoused A third point is that by scrutinizing an exemplary performance of anoft-performed play from this well-documented wayang tradition Arps is ableto compare it with related performances and play texts in the same courtly tra-dition going back nearly two centuries including other Dewa Ruci enactmentsby Anom himself This allows the tracing of continuities and change in wayangpractice to a remarkable extent

The edition provides important answers for why Javanese wayang kulit andparticularly the courtly style of Surakarta is such an important cultural perfor-mance and how it encapsulates Javanese culture in lsquodiscrete performancesrsquo tobe exhibited to visitors and to the Javanese themselves (Singer quoted in Arps20163) Laid bare is the verbal artistry of the dalang the enormous range oftextual sources quoted and paraphrased in performance the different registersof Javanese spoken and the dalangrsquos control of archaic vocabulary contrastingspeech styles and etiquette and rhetorical figures Careful notation of musicthe percussive effects the dalang adds using a woodenmallet and metal platesto underline dialogue and cue music and puppet movement and blocking(through both descriptions and video stills) enables an understanding of theinterplay of music sound and movement with verbal discourse We witnesshow layers of history accretemdashthe ancient Buddhic practices embodied by thesage Abiyasa including lsquoauguring performing calendrical divination prescrib-ing protectivemagicrsquo (p 88) the ceremonial protocols and regalia of courtly lifein colonial Java enunciations of Islamic beliefs Javanism and the state ideol-ogy of Pancasila associatedwith theNewOrderDewaRuci is considered to be alsquoseniorrsquo (p 24) or lsquoweightyrsquo (p 23) play It involves an exposition of key tenets ofJavanese mysticism Bratasenarsquos journey is itself an allegory for the trials andtribulations of the mystic and his meeting with his inner god the diminu-tive Dewa Ruci or resplendent god emblematizes the unity of microcosm andmacrocosm Plays of this sort exhibit what Arps calls lsquoreligiosityrsquo and show thateven a blunt and ill-mannered warrior like Bratasena prioritizes spiritual overmaterial valuesWayangrsquos ethical compasswas perhaps especially important as


120 debate


a counterbalance to the rampant capitalism individualism and increasinglyconspicuous consumption of the New Order

Less clear from this edition is how this exhibition of Javanese values wasreceived by the Amsterdam audience and how the performance fitted into thelarger Dutch puppet scene Arps notes that themost prominent audience reac-tion was from the gamelan group itselfmdashmusicians quick to laugh at everyallusion to conditions of the tour and their experiences of Amsterdam perdiems baguettes canals undercooked rice breakfast the red light districtOnly rarely does Anom address members of the audience nor does he makeobvious concessions to Dutch tastes Arps likens the performance to lsquostudiorecordings of wayangrsquo (p 22) in which dalang and musicians perform primar-ily for each other and only secondarily for an imagined listening public Anomdoes mention in passing Jos Janssen (the Dutch gamelan musician and soundtechnician who recorded the performance) and alludes to practising dalangin the Netherlands (Rien Baartmans and Arps himself) But there are no obvi-ous references to the venue sponsors the international puppet festival orother performances at the festival which I take as indicative of the grouprsquosinsularity from the puppet world Indeed until Indonesia finally joined theunesco-affiliated international puppetry organization Union Internationalede la Marionnette (unima International Union of Puppetry) in 2009 it wasoften claimed that wayang was categorically different from any other sort ofpuppet theatre in the world referred to somewhat pejoratively in Indonesianas lsquodoll theatrersquo (teater boneka) Although other dalang of Anomrsquos generationmost notably the Sundanese dalang Asep Sunandar Sunarya benefited fromexchanges with the international puppet world Anom was typical in his iso-lation Circumstances are different today for younger Indonesian dalang suchas I Made Sidia and Catur Kuncoro who actively seek collaborative opportuni-ties

That is not to imply that Anom was inward-looking and isolated in theIndonesian context Far from it As an active promoter of Golkar a titled courtdalang a hajji a visiting professor at Surakartarsquos conservatoire an office holderin a number of puppet organizations and the convenor of a long-runningmonthly performance series (Rebo Legen) bringing together puppeteers fromaround Java Anom was and remains one of the most linked-up and worldly ofIndonesianpuppeteers AsArpsnotes hewas a voracious reader of newspapersandmagazines which allowed in his ownwords for his performances to be lsquoupto datersquo (p 52) Indeed inmanyways Anomrsquos performance is remarkably lsquoup todatersquowith the Indonesia of 1987 aswell as resonatingwith centuries of Javanesehistory One of the great accomplishments of this edition is the way it patientlydemonstrateswayangrsquos lsquoindexicalrsquo naturemdashtheway it lsquopoint[s] to and call[s] up


debate 121


[hellip] history and contextrsquo (p 56) This as Arps rightly emphasizes is one of thegreat pleasures of wayangWe are hailed to identify sources for uncited quota-tions trace oblique references and allusions and think through the meaningsof allegories and symbols By taking us through a single performance at theslowed-down pace afforded by presenting transcription and translation along-side detailed annotations providing the keys to wayangrsquos dense field of refer-ence we can appreciate to an unprecedented degree the relationship betweenwayang performance and the world

Matthew Isaac CohenRoyal Holloway University of London

matthewcohenrhulacuk

In his Tall tree nest of the wind Bernard Arps takes us to the next level in thetranslation of Javanese wayang kulit purwa sharing knowledge from a traineddalang and offering a philological perspective of an important lakon (play)Dewa Ruci is to Javanese wayang what Chushingura is to Japanese kabuki orLear to Renaissance drama The performance chosen is unusual a 1987 presen-tation in theNetherlands rather than in Java but of course this allowed a fullerdocumentation given themore orderly indoor audience for Ki Anom Suroto acontemporary superstar dalang In producing this edition Arps takes his placein the evolution of translations of wayang texts into English from the Nether-lands a central site for studies of Javanese wayang and literature since thenineteenth century He addsmusic movement and visuals with links to onlinerecordings going beyond other works (including the relatively performance-oriented one by Brandon [1993] and inviting comparison to the recent work ofKitsie Emerson onwith Purbo Asmoro [2013]) that documents alternative ver-sions of the same lakon with texts and dvds Arps innovatively registers vocallevels hammer raps and breath pauses in the textMy commentswill not focuson the translation with notes which I commend for its mining of the exten-sive literature for comparing this iteration with versions performed by otherdalang and for sharing the scholarship of many others Instead I query frommyoutsider positionmdashtrained in Sundanesewayanggolek which for Javaneseis usually considered a rustic lsquospin off rsquo I probe three points 1) secrecy 2) CentralJavanism and 3) philology

1) I wonder how Arps positions this work in relation to secrecy which isan important component of the tradition My teachers were loath to sharedefinitive meanings Interpretation is not to be in plain sight (though the cluesare everywhere) Arps notes that part of the attraction of these works is their


122 debate


ambiguity and availability to individual interpretation (p 47) Arps sets himselfup as an expert reader rejecting the idea that the native speaker necessarilyknows more than the philologist (p 49) He is right but he is also driven bythemodel of Western scholarship explication and clarificationmdashamodel thatmay be at odds with the intent Reading the notes we feel wemaster the lakonbut can it be actually graspedmdashexcept by the performers who like Arps havewandered inside the lakon

2) Central Javanism is of course what the project is about Most literature onwayang has been generated by and is about the palace traditions of Surakartaand Yogyakarta which were finely developed by the elite of the colonial andpost-colonial erasmdashthis tradition gives Dewa Ruci much of its aura But manyimportant aspects of wayang seem to come from theNorthCoast where earlierindigenous elements Hindu-Buddhism and Islam fused (consider a standardopening narration which Arps agrees [p 450] describes a North Coast geog-raphy) a region that may show older roots and may have experienced slowerchange For example North Coast or Sundanese explications might link thefour directionscolours (which BimaBratasena experiences when he entersthe body of his spiritual guideteacher that lsquomini-mersquo Dewa Ruci) with dulurpapat (four spirit siblings of the self) which Arpsmentions only briefly (Bimarsquosfour half-brothers and sons of Bayu [p 550] or the Kurawarsquos birth [p 453]) AsI read this lakon I wondered whether if one looked from further outside theSolo-Yogya circle [which he does mostly briefly] the notes about wider impli-cations might morph toward lower-class ideas The idea of a spirit type siblingwho is doubled with an important character repeats Dewa Rucirsquos relation toBimaparallels Naradarsquos to BhataraGuru [Shiva] UmarMayarsquos toAmirHamzahand god clown Semarrsquos to Arjuna Do these odd spirit guides relate to the olderIndo-Malay conception of the afterbirth as the prime sibling who protects ortests Likewise while we learn of Central Javarsquos wanda (manifestation at a par-ticular moment as in youth meditation et cetera) the iconography of Bimapuppets in further areas (Cirebon and Sunda for instance) has the naga hedefeats in this lakon as his necklace and of course it is placed approximatelywhere the naga on the kayon (tree-of-life) loops the tree trunk Many versionsof the kayonmdashwith itsmountain-water [sea] dichotomy two raksasademonsat the bottom [Rukmuka Rukmakala] naga on the tree [tall tree nest of thewind] and lotus at the top [water of life]mdashmap Bimarsquos journey even as thekayon gives a tantricmapof thebody [microcosmos] and ideologically includesthe four colours elements siblings and the many other ideas usually expli-cated by Dewa Ruci Is the story just a quick trip around and up the kayon Theelite of theCentral Javanese palaces have deepened thiswayang story butmorerusticmaterials might not enter into it Arps offers DewaRuci as a civilizational


debate 123


rosetta stone but this version as he admittedly notes is heavily mediated byclass and Central Java and parts of rural society may be thereby neglected

3) Philology Arps is aware of the assault that philology underwent in themidtwentieth century First devised as a method of delivering the definitive ver-sions of important sacred texts (that is the Bible) by the early twentieth cen-tury it was meant to be a rigorous method to ascertain accurate editionsread-ings of historically important works Arps is aware of the onslaught of theorycultural studies and performance studies which sought to deconstruct theWestern humanities in the post-WorldWar ii era and questioned the excessivefocus on words Deconstructions saw Indonesian philological practice linkedwith colonialism and orientalism philology and European lsquoexpertsrsquo were seenas tools of colonial rule In this work Arps tries to recuperate (without thatbaggage) the older tradition which in Leiden had a rich history Taking toolsfrom performance studies he expands philology beyond text and gives per-formance its due recognition He acknowledges where theosophists may havealtered interpretations and howmodern Indonesian politics intrudesWith hisdetail we almost feel we are getting the point-by-point description as if some-one were sharing Richard Burbadgersquos playing Lear with the bardrsquos text (plusnotes on other stagings and cultural references)mdasha time capsule some futuredalangmight find and replicate

The introduction argues this is an example of whatmightshouldbedone forother performance genres to create a definitive text yet I wonder how manypeople can use all this information The tradition does not care how manyraps or breath pauses occurred should the reader In a moment when disci-plines (such as folklore literary studies and perhaps even Javanese literature)are struggling in many university programmes how many academics have thetime and patience to create a work based on such a detailed model or to fol-low Christiaan Hooykaasrsquos divergent philological choice (themultiple versionsof the Balinese Dharma pawayangan in his Kama and Kala) In the Americanacademy at leastwe teachour classes of threehundredundergraduates and tryto pump out articles at an acceptable pace the slow and methodical practiceof philologymay only be available to the few at institutions with extraordinaryresources and a history of Javanese studies We wonder if in the current aca-demic environment Javanese studies of this level will long persist in Leidenand throughout the NetherlandsWe hope so

Kathy FoleyUniversity of California Santa Cruz

kfoleyucscedu


124 debate


References

Asmoro Purbo and Kathryn Emerson (2013) Makutharama Ramarsquos crown and thegrand offering of the kings Sesaji Raja Suya Jakarta Lontar [Wayang EducationalPackage]

Brandon James ed with Pandam Guritno (1993) On thrones of gold Three Javaneseshadow plays Honolulu University of Hawaii Press

Hooykaas C (1973) Kama and Kala Materials for the study of shadow theatre in BaliAmsterdam North Holland

As I write this the worldmdashand this is hardly an exaggerationmdashis debatingan American presidentrsquos inaugural address Innumerable commentaries onFacebook the Internet and in all manner of mass media discuss the remark-able brevity of Donald J Trumprsquos speech its pithy and punchy diction how itwas unlike previous presidentsrsquo inaugural speeches or similar to the speakerrsquosimprovised campaign speeches how it had certain disconcerting historical res-onances and the degree of accuracy of its representation of political and eco-nomic facts Addressing the design meaning sources and inspirations precur-sors and contextual connections of the address all this commentary evincesa philological sensibilitymdasheven if the majority of commentators are proba-bly unaware of the philological nature of their interests and analyses Themeanings attributed to a textual artefact like the speech delivered by Pres-ident Trump on 20 January 2017 are historically and contextually informedThe historicity and contextuality of those meanings are not directly apparenthowever they must be ascertained and are disputable The philological sensi-bility delights in this search for sense and in the tensions involved Professionalphilologists most prominently Pollock (2009 2016) have been advocating theintellectual urgency of their discipline for some time Trumprsquos speech andits reception once again illustrate the validity of their case Treating materialcreationsmdashartefactsmdashas the central point of attention in a dynamic web thatextends beyond those artefacts themselves in social space and that has a signif-icant prior history philology is indispensable for making critical sense of acuteissues This philologicalwork is consequential Based on their understanding ofthe address governments are bracing for impact international ngos and busi-nesses are reconsidering their strategies new communities form and peoplegear up for action

As a philological study of a Javanese shadow-play performance Tall treenest of the wind joins the philologistsrsquo cause and while they highlight variousfacets in line with their specializations and interests my reviewers turn out to


debate 125


be sympathetic as well Helen Creese observes for instance how Tall tree nestof the wind notes and explains the lsquo[a]llusions often comic or risqueacute to thesocial and political context of the original 1987 performance including to thedevelopment and social policies of the New Order period and to the presenceand experiences of the performers themselves in Amsterdamrsquo Kathy Foleyalludes to the same whileMatthewCohen concludes in general terms thatTalltree nest of the wind helps to lsquoappreciate [hellip] the relationship between wayangperformance and the worldrsquo The philological sensibility is not unique to textsthen and the scholarly discipline of philology should not restrict itself to textseither This ultimately is what Tall tree nest of the wind aims to demonstrateCreese Cohen and Foley also question head-on or by way of smaller specificconcerns certain theoretical assumptions practical choices and academicramifications of my approach I will address four things they problematize theraison drsquoecirctre of philology and especially the philology of performance the useof a Central Javanese court-style wayang play to illustrate it the format andcontents of the edition and a philologistrsquos lack of time

The Purpose of Philology

Above anything else philology is a mode of understanding and potentiallya rich one A philological edition often coupled with a translation is a formof analysis of study Creating a definitive textmdashwhich is identified by Foleyas the original aim of textual philology and also attributed to Tall tree nestof the windmdashis no longer considered its primary purpose Another editionof the performance of Dewa Ruci the celebrated play recounting the mythichero Bimarsquos quest for purity by the famous Central Javanese puppeteer KiAnomSoeroto in Amsterdam November 1987 could easily have taken up otheraspects for treatment or would have transcribed translated or explained themdifferently

Foley characterizes my account of this performance as lsquoa time capsule somefuturedalangmight find and replicatersquo Indeed the edition is already being usedas a source of inspiration by puppeteers But besides for them philologistsand students of performance it may also have value for anthropologists eth-nomusicologists or students of religion especially asmdashin my view at leastmdashphilology should ultimately be concerned with the cultural affordances of theartefacts it examines Philology is awayof understanding artefacts but its inter-est does not stop there It wants to know how artefacts help to make worlds


126 debate


ATest Case in the Philology of Performance

Philology is applicable to all performance in all its aspects It may be enlight-ening for instance to systematically ask philological questions about the arte-factuality compositionality apprehensibility contextuality and historicity offeatures of Trumprsquos performance other than the words he pronounced Theseinclude his facial expressions and gestures the dynamics of his voice the writ-ers and coaches behind the text and its delivery the location andmise-en-scegraveneof the speech Trumprsquos outfit and those of the others on stage theway the eventwas shot edited and televised the pauses and audible responses what pre-ceded and followed the address proper and so on But as it happens Tall treenest of the windmakes its theoretical andmethodological claims bymeans of aJavanese wayang performance

This is not entirely accidental Wayang is the Shakespeare of Indonesianstudies Both are ascribed poetic genius and what England and global aca-demia imagine as individual textual originality is continually created in JavaBali and theMalay world in living social performance More importantly hereas a canonical and relatively crowded field of enquiry wayang studies are fer-tile ground for discussion and the development of insightful new approachesJust to mention a few authors from the last half-century Brandon Ander-son Becker Clara van Groenendael Keeler Sears Mraacutezek Umar Kayam ArisWahyudi Emerson and two of the reviewers have altered our perceptions ofthe genre

Most of this has been about classical Central Javanese and indeed Solonesewayang kulit I am well aware that lsquoCentral Javanismrsquo (the term used by Foley)and more specifically lsquoSoloismrsquo as well as classicism (Cohen) have been ten-dencies in Javanese studies from the colonial era until today and this book(though not all my work) continues on this academic path For this there aregood reasons One as just noted is the scholarly fertility of a well-populatedfield The availability of documentation is another Classical Solonese wayangstyle is considered canonical all over Java This tradition unlike all other re-gional and institutional styles allows the play of Dewa Ruci to be traced overtwo centuries from the earliest known short scenario dictated by a court pup-peteer in 181718 (Arps forthcoming) through the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies up to the present Thus the fullest possible attention can be givento an important one among the five dimensions of the philological mindsetmdashhistoricitymdashin Tall tree nest of the windrsquos annotations Circumstances permit-ting it will also enable historical and social tracing of variety versus stabilityin the performance of Dewa Ruci in the future publications that I hope willemerge from the same long-term project on the narrative of Bimarsquos quest forpurity


debate 127


Why then revisit lsquoan overtly classicist performance from three decadespastrsquo In response to his question Cohen immediately proposes alongside twoarguments grounded in the present this welcome survival of materials over anextended period In addition I should mention that partly for its classicismKi Anomrsquos performance illuminates a momentous epoch in Indonesiarsquos past(Cohen himself incidentally excels in this kind of historical contextualizationHe practises it in this very review) Of course historical insights are occasionedhere by concrete elements of the focal artefact and presented in philologicalfashion in the accompanying annotations not in a thematically or chronolog-ically organized historical exposition

How to Create Editions

Creese expresses a desire for an interactive digital format This presents itselfas an evident format for editions of performance and in fact it would havebeen feasible for the wayang that is studied in Tall tree nest of the wind sinceaudio and video recordings of the entire seven-hour performance exist As theprimary format of publication I have insisted on a printed book nonethelessbecause of the ease of skimming reading and leafing back and forth that abook offers as well as its two-page field of vision A Google Books version ofmost of Tall tree nest of the wind is available online facilitating the searchingfor words that Creese also desires As noted in the book the audio recording isfreely accessible on theWorldWideWeb

Creese Cohen and Foley also raise questions about the editionrsquos analysis Amajor issue is the amount of detail Foley asks sharply lsquoThe tradition does notcare howmany raps or breath pauses occurred should the readerrsquo In responselet me indeed consider the raps that the puppeteer may make with a woodenmallet on the puppet chest between utterances hair-splitting as this particularfeature seems to be In the first place the tradition is of great importance tothe philologist but it does not exhaust what is relevant as Creese points out Ihave tried to argue in Tall tree nest of the wind that with hindsight or widercontextual knowledge other matters than the participantsrsquo understandingsmay turn out to have explanatory value as well An excellent example is Foleyrsquosexegesis of the kayon as a synoptic icon of Bimarsquos quest (or vice versa seebelow) I did not recognize this before perhaps because I remained close tocommentary in Solonese puppeteersrsquo circles where this correspondence is notrecognized But it should be obvious that another field of interest allows one tosee this as highly noteworthy

Secondly therefore not all minutiae of a performance and edition are rel-evant to all spectators or readers nor do they have to be The precise number


128 debate


of raps between a puppeteerrsquos utterances or the number of bullets (bull) betweentheir written representations in an edition is probably of no interest whatso-ever to the great majority of people that encounter them in either modalityBut these raps and their patterning do have a sense that is emotive or evensymbolic No raps or bullets one a few or a dozen of them played quickly orslowly softly or loudly feel very different while a sequence of evenly timed (orspaced) raps symbolizes something other than bullbull bull (the pattern onomatopoe-ically named dherodhog) This feeling belongs to the story-world created by thepuppeteerwhich the edition aims to represent Steady rapping helps to create atense atmosphere while dherodhog signals a transition to something new suchas a change of topic a shift to another speaker or a gamelan piece These smallmatters are details certainly but are they just as well left out

Creese suggests that 136 densely printed pages of annotation may be exces-sive This raises the thorny question of when enough is enough in annotationTo an extent the boundaries are set by what data the philologist is able toaccess This may be quite limited to begin with Within the limits set by sheeravailability other criteria must apply In interactional sociolinguistics and theethnography of speaking where the same issue was debated decades ago theforemost heuristic has been lsquothe ldquocontextualization cuesrdquo that signal which fea-tures of the settings are used by interactants in producing interpretive frame-worksrsquo (Bauman and Briggs 199068) These are key in the philological studyof performance too but must be expanded here with what can be called lsquohis-toricizationrsquo cues which give temporal depth to those interpretive frameworksEven so as noted things may become relevant only later while of course par-ticipants can have highly varied backgrounds competencies and interests andsome participants have more authority than others

Foley notes that her teachers of Sundanese wayang golek lsquowere loath toshare definitive meaningsrsquo While I have not noticed the same secrecy amongSolonese puppeteers the true meaning of materials considered weighty is abeloved topic of controversy and debate (as noted repeatedly in Tall tree nestof the wind) The widespread esotericism in Javanese interpretations of cul-turally significant signs including narrative elements of wayang the symbol-ism of puppets and performance equipment and the abstract structure of aperformance in terms of scenes does not hamper philology let alone invali-date it Quite the contrary it poses problems that philologists delight in andthrive on While classical philology may have tried to get rid of it its con-temporary incarnation takes esotericism seriously as an approach to mean-ing

When I follow lsquothe model of Western scholarship explication and clarifica-tionrsquo Foley asks is this not lsquoat odds with the intentrsquo I have tried to demonstrate


debate 129


in Tall tree nest of the wind that this model at least in its philological guiseis quite in harmony with the Solonese wayang tradition not only with regardto language but also music and puppetry this applies both within the perfor-mance and in the critical discourse surrounding it Of course Foley is spot on inraising the issue of a possible discrepancy between semantic and hermeneutictraditions in this case between a philology that observes wayang from the out-side the philology of a critical local audience and the philology that is internalto wayang performance itself A good lsquoworld philologyrsquo (Pollock Elman andChang 2015) rises above the differences expanding its purview to encompassall traditions Ultimately asks Foley can the play be lsquograspedrsquo fromwithout theperformance tradition Whether it can be fully comprehended by anyone atall puppeteers included I doubt it can be studied however and the philologyof performancemdashincluding edition and translationmdashis a way of attempting todo this profitably

Foleyrsquos discussion of the interpretation of Bimarsquos journey from North Coastand Sundanese (and laudably lower-class and rural) perspectives as well asmore general andabstract Indo-Malay ideologies includingher fascinating andthought-provoking reading of Bimarsquos quest as a narrativization of the Javaneseand Sundanese classical kayonrsquos imagerymdashor perhaps vice versa the kayon asa synoptic visual representation of Bimarsquos questmdashraises the question of howclose to its participantsrsquo semantic andhermeneutic practices a philology of per-formance might choose to remain The answer of course is that this will varywith the questions asked of the performatic artefact For Tall tree nest of thewind I chose to put in the spotlight this particular performance in its ostensi-ble regional and institutional traditions (those of its Javanese performers andaudience members much more than the traditions of its Dutch audience asCohen rightly notes) as well as Ki Anom Soerotorsquos personal oeuvre

Whose Philology is This

Philological editions of multimodal performances take a considerable amountof time to compose The difficulty does not lie in counting raps on the pup-pet chest (which is easy enough) but in making sense of puppet tableausand movement music as well as language This requires extensive interpre-tive skills and contextual and historical expertiseWho in twenty-first-centuryacademia is granted the leisure of doing the kind of painstaking research thatwas invested in Tall tree nest of the wind To dispel any illusions this bookwas completed under circumstances of outright institutional hostility towardsthe slow scholarship it represents and in Leiden Javanese studies as a univer-


130 debate


sity subject was scrapped almost a decade ago Perhaps then lsquothe slow andmethodical practice of philologyrsquo (Foley) can be exercised under adverse con-ditions And in some places conditions may be favourable Given that it isconceived as a contribution to world philology and aligned with the new AreaStudies that takes local scholarly traditions seriously (Arps 2016) studying thephilology of performance may be quite feasible in a country like Indonesiawhich sets great store by performance as well as textual philology The con-tinuing presence of the latter in Indonesian universities is due to a combina-tion of at least three factors Colonial-era philological theory mediated by thenationalistic celebration of past textual achievements continues to be valuedThe hands-on practical nature of textual philology has academic and practi-cal value in Indonesia as manuscripts continue to be used and even producedin some parts while they are also cherished as heritage and traded Third isthe traditional prominence of a philological sensibility in Indonesian artisticcultures and the religious sphere All three factors are easily extended to per-formance Meanwhile the critical rethinking of philology with which Tall treenest of the wind is aligned is a planetary affair driven from the usa (PollockMcGann Turner) and Germany (the Zukunftsphilologie programme and itspublications) Folklore and the ethnography of performance closely relateddisciplines continue to have a presence (albeit small) in the usa as well andhave their academic andpolitical roots especially inGermany andBritain (Bau-man and Briggs 2003) At the same time their aspirations are likewise world-wide

Thinking and feeling philologically is thinking and feeling beyond the hereand now It is fascinating and important this work should be done

Bernard ArpsLeiden University

BArpshumleidenunivnl

References

Arps Bernard (2016) lsquoReligion in Southeast Asian studiesrsquo in Kiri Paramore (ed)Religion and orientalism in Asian studies pp 13ndash23 165 London and New YorkBloomsbury

Arps Bernard (forthcoming) lsquoThe benefits of purity in Amarta and Surakarta Theshadowplay of Bima Suci 1817ndash1818rsquo [For a volume on religious change in Javanesetexts ed by Toru Aoyama et al Tokyo Institute of Languages and Cultures of Asiaand Africa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies]


debate 131


Bauman Richard and Charles L Briggs (1990) lsquoPoetics and performance as criticalperspectives on language and social lifersquo Annual Review of Anthropology 1959ndash88

Bauman Richard andCharles L Briggs (2003)Voices of modernity Language ideologiesand the politics of inequality Cambridge etc Cambridge University Press

Pollock Sheldon (2009) lsquoFuture philology The fate of a soft science in a hard worldrsquoCritical Inquiry 35931ndash961

Pollock Sheldon (2016) lsquoPhilology and freedomrsquo Philological Encounters 14ndash30Pollock Sheldon Benjamin A Elman and Ku-ming Kevin Chang (eds) (2015) World

philology Cambridge and London Harvard University Press


116 debate


tory commentary therefore becomes a way to study historical performance inall its fullness

Yet the 1987 Dewa Ruci performance in Amsterdam was lsquonot particularlyexceptionalrsquo (p 19) Why then is it deserving of so much scholarly and espe-cially philological attention There are a number of reasons The Dewa Ruciis lsquoan emblematic play in an emblematic genrersquo (p 6) Bratasenarsquos quest forenlightenment embodies Javanese multistranded and multilayered lsquoBuddhicrsquoreligiosity Such intricate philosophical and mystical exegesis is not for thefaint-hearted One of the singular achievements of this book is in opening upsuch a rich vein of understanding about the ways in which this religiosity con-tinues to appeal to the traditionally inclined in predominantly Islamic Indone-sia Like wayang itself Arpsrsquos philological project on lsquonarrative worldmakingrsquobecomes lsquoindexicalrsquo by pointing to and calling up innumerable intertextualhistorical and contextual associations from lsquowayangrsquos storehouse of knowledgeabout the past for the presentrsquo (p 61)

The very fine translation is the key entry point to lsquothe form and craftsman-shiprsquo (p 7) of the historical performance It is possible to read this book simplyfor the delight of its story and language But unlike traditional textual philologythe philology of performance also requires the representation of lsquonon-textualmodalitiesrsquo The result is the inclusion in the edition of explicit information onmusic andmusical atmosphere on settings andaction andon illustrations thatbring the play to life The story and characters already familiar tome from clas-sical Javanese poetic traditions are enhanced by the performative elements ofthis edition

Access to metatextual information and detail is provided by the exten-sive annotations which clarify particular instances of language music andpuppetry The annotations provide access to the performance process to theinterpretation of the dalang (puppeteer) and especially to the wayang tra-ditions and stories on which the performance is built The annotations domore than point out the metaphorical and allegorical elements that a reader(or an audience member) would never notice They also explicate borrow-ings from and responses to performance practices and to Javanese textualtraditions more broadly Allusions often comic or risqueacute to the social andpolitical context of the original 1987 performance including to the develop-ment and social policies of the New Order period and to the presence andexperiences of the performers themselves in Amsterdam are woven into theperformance and are equally deserving of explication for twenty-first-centuryreaders

Extensive annotations of this kind both help and hinder the reader Somemay even consider these annotations which run to 136 finely printed pages to


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