The Tiny Path: A Representation of the Tragedy of Timor Leste in Indonesian Novels

Abstract

This article which is concerned with the tiny path ‘jalan tikus’ through which the border separating Indonesia and Timor Leste.  The data needed was taken from two Indonesian novels entitled Vittora Helena’s Brown Box (2015) written by Soeriapoetra, and Orang-Orang Oetimu (2019)  by Nesi. The current study applies the theory of genetic structuralism concerning aesthetic structure, the world view, and the theory of power of knowledge concerning the knowledge of parrhesia or the truth, and the writer as a parrhesiasist, someone who is brave enough to perform the parrhesia practice through literary work. The result  shows that the tiny path ‘jalan tikus’ through which the human existential locus is voiced has been made to be torn apart by the dispersed families as a consequence of the different political choices they make. The tragedy of the civil war and the military invention in Timor Leste have led to the trauma and revenge.  The current study offers a new way of utilizing the local tiny path ‘jalan tikus’ to the writers who are brave enough to reveal the history  of the people’s oppression and suffering. Apart from that, it also verifies the sides of human expectation  for the future of mankind.