An Introduction to Two Stories by Linda Christanty: The Flying Horse of Maria Pinto and The Fourth Grave

Abstract

This short essay introduces the two short stories by Linda Christanty featured in translation in this issue. It argues that the work of Christanty must be placed into a wider discussion of political changes and developments in Indonesian historiography since the Reformasi period, particularly involving past accounts of state violence that the author takes up in her fiction. As such, the recent excitement over the growing corps of “women writers” in Indonesia, categorized as “sastra wangi,” prevent a thorough understanding of the political and historicized fiction that female authors such as Christanty produce.