| Summary: | Presently, there is a tendency for linking some literary works to a political situation. In the
meantime, classification of generations in the history of Indonesian literature itself is wellacknowledged.
Compared to any other generations emerged before or afterwards, Generation
of �66 holds a unique position. Then, the political position of Generation of �66 can be described
clearly by considering its poems, not its other literary texts. Among other poems created by
poets of Generation of �66, poems written by Taufiq Ismail are the most representative ones.
Therefore, the creation of poems by Taufiq Ismail can be related to the political chaos happened
in 1966. That political chaos was caused by The Old Order acts in abuse of democracy, which
led to its own collapse and the emerging of The New Order. However, years afterwards in 1998
Taufiq Ismail also found another chaos due to The New Order�s corruption on democracy.
Obviously, the creation of Taufiq Ismail�s poems can be related to the collapses of those
regimes and the emerging regime of The New Order as well.
This study is aimed for finding the meaning of democracy in the anthologies of poems Tirani,
Benteng, and Malu (Aku) Jadi Orang Indonesia. The first two were created in 1966, whereas
the last one was created in 1998. This study uses Derrida�s deconstruction as the method.
Derrida�s deconstruction, however, claims that every logocentric text always contains
oppositional structures. This study also uses Derrida�s ideas on democracy as the theoretical
basis. Those ideas affirm that democracy has internal contradictions within itself.
This study got results that the meaning of democracy in Tirani, Benteng, and Malu (Aku) Jadi
Orang Indonesia was constructed as a closure. In the same way, that closure of democracy was
built through the stabilization of vertical hierarchies, and of horizontal formations as well. Yet,
deconstruction method showed that the logos� on which all those hierarchies and formations
existed were unstable, therefore the closure of democracy was finally broken. The deformity
on the closure of democracy was also caused by the exclusion in the horizontal, democratic
relationship, and by the stabilization of hierarchies in the vertical, democratic relationship. In
conclusion, those anthologies of poems express a call to avoid any closure about the meaning
of democracy. This call aims that all borderlines between the exclusive ones and the inclusive
ones, or between the superior and the inferior, could always be diluted. Therefore, an effort
could be soon made in order to end any destructive, political chaos. This study also found that
those anthologies of poems called�and have been calling�anyone to pay attention to the
incalculable justice and mercy for all people in democracy.
Key Words: the literature-politics relationship, Generation of �66, poems, democracy,
deconstruction
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