Deconstruction as disempowerment: New orientalisms of Java

These comments and reflections on the impact of recent theories on the study of Java are stimulated by issues that arise when focusing on the interpretation of traditional mystical culture. Though the works I will deal with are only loosely linked to either deconstruction or mysticism, they do highlight issues arising from how these intersect. Each work offers a reading of contemporary culture that implicitly or explicitly assesses the place of traditions within it. In at once critiquing and applying deconstruction, only occasionally to works that use it, my focus is on posing a question rather than on resolving it or providing a balanced survey of scholarly work. I will not do justice to the works mentioned because my questioning is at the periphery of their purposes, in the spirit of deconstruction itself.