The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts
History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780819501264
Pub Date: 01 Oct 2024
Imprint: Wesleyan University Press
Series: Music/Culture
Illustrations: 14 b&w photos, 5 b&w line drawings, 4 b&w tables
Description:
The role of performing art in one of the world's most diverse and complex societies/>/>This book is the first comprehensive overview of Javanese performing arts from their origins to their dynamic present. Renowned scholar and musician Sumarsam draws from a lifetime of immersion in both wayang and gamelan to guide readers through the concept of the "in-between," revealing how the interplay of dualisms—myth and history, sacred and secular, personal and cultural—forms the bedrock of Javanese performance. Rigorously researched historical case studies reveal the intricate relationship between histories and mythologies in Java.