Yogyakarta (17/10/2023) - A public lecture entitled "brother-sister love in modern Javanese literature: cangkriman for literary researchers" has been organized by the Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). The public lecture was held on Monday (16/10/2023) at the Auditorium, Soegondo Building 7th floor, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, UGM, and was attended by students of the Javanese Language, Literature, and Culture Study Program, and other participants interested in the topic.

The public lecture presented Dr. George Quinn, senior lecturer of Australian International University Canberra, as the speaker, Rudy Wiratama, S.I.P, M.A., lecturer of Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Program UGM, as the moderator, and Nurma Aisyah, student of Batch 2022, as the announcer.

On this occasion, Dr. George Quinn explained about an incest situation in novels of Modern Javanese Literature from 1939 to 2021. An interesting thing presented by Dr. George Quinn is that the love of these siblings is like the love of husband and wife.

"When the position of the character and his partner as brother and sister is known, it is as if they are okay and their relationship as lovers must be reformulated into a brother-sister relationship. Thus, because brother-sister sexual love clashes with the prohibition of incest, a husband and wife who model the "perfection" of brother-sister love, which contains psychological and religious tensions, will not be possible," explained Dr. George Quinn.

Dr. George Quinn (on the right) delivering his presentation.

he seemingly taboo topic of discussion actually aroused great curiosity in the participants. This was evidenced by the various questions asked to Dr. George Quinn in the discussion session, so that this public lecture successfully became a forum for discussing the proposed topic.

After the discussion session, Dr. Daru Winarti, M.Hum, as the Head of the Javanese Language, Literature and Culture Study Program, handed over a book as a souvenir. Dr. George Quinn also gave a souvenir in the form of a book to Dr. Daru Winarti, M.Hum. Afterwards, a documentation session was held to capture the moment of togetherness.

Gift giving by Dr. George Quinn (left) and Dr. Daru Winarti, M.Hum (right)

Rudy Wiratama, S.I.P., M.A., expressed his hope that the public lecture in the afternoon would inspire participants who wanted to research the topic in the future. "We hope that this public lecture will be a prank for all of you, so that it can inspire and bridge research related to Javanese Literature in the future".