A Foucauldian, non‐intentionalist analysis of modern Javanese ethics

Abstract

This article analyses some major works of poetry produced by and for the Javanese nobility, the priyayi. It attempts to show that an interpretation of ways of life is conditional upon first successfully circumscribing a specific scope of subjectivation, while at the same time avoiding two pitfalls: utilitarianism and culturalism. The hypothesis is that the codification by the priyayi of what they thought to be the “right Javanese way” of doing things was simultaneously the product and the language of conflicts of power and prestige, which opposed them to other social groups (notably princes and merchants). In other words, in response to Foucault's constant preoccupation with “eventalising” the story of the way in which discourses on moral rules were constituted, the priyayi's view of the self is related to a historically determined situation of social struggle. Finally, the conclusion reflects upon the possibility of escaping from an instrumentalist conception of power in the scope of the historical sociology of politics.

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“…during the colonial period, Dutch Orientalists, colonial administrators and high-ranking Javanese Regents came to give a wholly distorted view of this old priyayi conception of power, turning it into the cultural alibi of imperial authoritarianism. Before the colonization of the Dutch administration the term "priyayi" had a profound and noble philosophy which represented the right way of doing things in life (Bertrand, 2008(Bertrand, , 2015. After the colonization, to provide assistance to the Dutch in their occupation, the priyayi were recruited and were awarded with wealth and power.…”