Of Self and Nation

In looking critically at eight autobiographical works, all concerned in one way or another with the question of what it means to be an Indonesian in the 20th century, Watson (anthropology, U. of Kent at Canterbury) makes a case for reading autobiographies as accounts of nation-building. The autobiographies under consideration include those of an aristocrat celebrated as the founder of the Indonesian women's movement, a Javanese man co-opted into Dutch colonial service, writers and religious leaders from Sumatra and Java, and participants in the 1930s and 1940s nationalist movement. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR