Exploring polygamous and adulterous narratives in Indonesian Islamic literature: a Cawelti framework in rural and urban contexts
Keywords:
Indonesian Islamic literature, polygamy and adultery, rural-urban narratives, romance formula, women’s agency, John G. CaweltiAbstract
Purpose
This article examines Indonesian Islamic novels: Perempuan Berkalung Sorban (2009), Hati Suhita (2019), Surga Yang Tak Dirindukan(2014), and Layangan Putus (2020), to analyse how popular fiction narrates polygamy and adultery across contrasting rural and urban settings. Although these texts have often been discussed in relation to Islam, gender, and morality, less attention has been paid to formal logic through which marital transgression is structured as romance.
Design/methodology/approach
This article traces patterns of plot repetition, character pairing, religious legitimation, and spatial movement in four Indonesian Islamic novels. This analysis draws on John G. Cawelti’s framework of romance formula, convention and invention, characterization, and moral fantasy to show how texts organize desire, conflict, and resolution, and how each novel adapts romance conventions to different rural and urban contexts.
Findings
All novels centre on a husband whose attachment is divided between two women, although the form varies from formal polygamy and concealed marriage to adultery and unresolved emotional loyalty. In rural narratives, marital conflict is closely tied to family authority, pesantren values, and expectations of female patience. In urban narratives, secrecy, broken trust, and personal dignity become more prominent. Rural heroines tend to negotiate suffering through endurance, faith, or gradual resistance, whereas urban heroines are given greater room to confront betrayal, redefine marriage, or leave it. The same romance formula therefore produces different moral outcomes across distinct social worlds.
Originality/value
By reading these novels as culturally specific popular romances, this article shows how familiar narrative structures register changing debates over Islamic marriage, women’s agency, and gender justice in post-Reformasi Indonesia.
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