Women as rivals, men as heroes: polygamous romance and formulaic narratives in Indonesia’s digital Islamic fiction

Abstract

Purpose

Today, digital Islamic fiction in Indonesia frequently turns polygamy into a romance formula. This article examines what such narratives teach readers about love, marriage, gender, and religious morality by comparing two KBM serials: Belahan Jiwa yang Hilang (2024–2025) by Chicha/Kolom Langit and Misteri Anak-anakku (2025) by Herni Rafael. Both texts emerge from digital literary culture in which Islamic romance, women’s authorship, and patriarchal family ideals intersect. This study reads these serials as popular narratives that do not merely represent polygamy, but reinterpret Islamic gender norms, and reflect patriarchal socio-cultural context of Muslim-majority Indonesia.

Design/methodology/approach

This article applies John G. Cawelti’s theory of formulaic narratives to identify the romance structures that shape both serials. This study uses qualitative textual analysis, with close attention to characterization, conflict, narrative repetition, and resolution with particular attention to motif of polygamy. Insights from feminist narrative theory and Islamic gender discourse are used to explain how gendered authority is constructed, contested, and legitimized. Textual novels here are read as digital cultural texts that combine entertainment, religious sentiment, and moral instruction.

Findings

Both serials deploy polygamy as a formulaic device for resolving romantic and moral tensions. In Belahan Jiwa yang Hilang, male protagonist appears as a morally superior figure, repudiating his first wife’s betrayal while idealizing second wife as pure, patient, and self-sacrificing. In Misteri Anak-anakku, polygamy is concealed, justified through deception, and sustained by division of women into rivals, victims, or maternal instruments. Across both narratives, men consistently emerge as heroic decision-makers, protectors, and moral centers. Women, by contrast, are often vilified, marginalized, or confined to redemptive suffering. These patterns depart from egalitarian Islamic interpretations of gender and instead reinforce hierarchical gender relations prevalent in Indonesian society.

Originality/value

This article demonstrates how digital Islamic fiction commodifies religious morality and gendered ideals through highly recognizable romance formulas. It also contributes to debates on popular Islamic culture, gender representation, and digital media ideology in Indonesia by showing how KBM operates simultaneously as a creative marketplace and as an ideological apparatus that normalizes polygamy, reinscribes patriarchy, and reshapes Muslim women’s identities for mass consumption.