Layar Terkembang (Spread Sail)
Description
Author: Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana
Published: Balai Pustaka
Year Published: 1936
Category: Fiction
The novel Layar Terkembang (Spread Sail) tells the story of the struggle of Indonesian women in achieving their goals. This novel tells of the clash of cultures between new values from the West and old values that are still widely embraced by Indonesian people. At this time the adoption of western culture was taking place, due to the Ethical Policy of the colonial government. This novel also tells about the problems of Indonesian women with new cultural clashes, towards modern thinking. Women's rights, which are carried out by modern culture with gender awareness, are widely expressed in this novel. The perspective that the author brings is considered revolutionary, because he wrote things that were different from many novels at that time. This novel was considered unique at that time, because it was set in Batavia (Jakarta) not like the novels of his time, which mostly took place in the Malay region (Sumatra).