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Literature
 

 

Literature

Marianne Katoppo

Henriette Marianne Katoppo, is a prize winning novelist, journalist and theologian from Tomohon, Indonesia. Katoppo was born in 1953 in Minahassa, which is located in the northern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia. She is a graduate from the Jakarta Theological Seminary and has been active in the Indonesia Student Christian Movement.

Marianne Katoppo had her book published in 1979. The title of her book is Compassionate and Free. The book is 85 pages long and so I was able to read it rather quickly. In this book Marianne Katoppo explains why Asian Christian women like herself seek the right to be different, to be the Other, rather than having to accept identities borrowed from men and other cultures.

Katoppo writes in first person of her experiences and often, her frustrations understanding how women came to be viewed as second class citizens in Indonesia and around the world. She breaks down bible passages in order to find God as woman. Arguing passionately and at times sounding sarcastic she questions the patriarchal structures deeply ingrained in cultures around the globe, many in which she believes come from man’s interpretation of holy scriptures, i.e., the Old and New Testament of the Bible and Muslim Quran. Katoppo also argues that Portuguese missionaries and Dutch colonization helped to take Indonesian women from an egalitarian existence in their native culture to one of poverty and prostitution that continues in Indonesia today.

Marianne Katoppo’s book, Compassionate and Free is a powerful and thought provoking work. It was a perfect coincidence that I happened upon it for a literary review of an Indonesian woman writer.

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