Postmodern Aesthetics of Saut Situmorang’s Poem: “Aku Ingin”

Abstract

This study examined the aesthetics of Saut Situmorang’s poem, "Aku Ingin",  by involving observations of textual and extratextual elements, inside and outside elements of a poetic text. The results of the study indicated that there were five aesthetic phenomena of the poem namely (1) pastiche, (2) parody, (3) kitsch, (4) camp, and (5) schizophrenia. The transformation of an earlier poem, “Aku Ingin” by Sapardi Djoko Damono, into a new version of Saut indicated a symptom of pastiche. The symptom was also captured in the intertextuality relationship with the previous text, the Romeo and Juliet tragedy. Sapardi’s thought and expression were imitated in such a way as to make it absurd. The phrase “mencintai dengan membabi buta” (loving s.o. blindly) instead of “mencintai dengan sederhana” (loving s.o. simply) became an imitation marker of the work that was made close to the original version, distorted in its direction indicated a symptom of parody. Kitsch was seen in the influx of Romeo and Juliet tragedy in the poem which indicated the absence of limit between high and mass cultural values. Camp was captured in Saut's response to a "boredom" and at the same time a reaction to the high cultural arrogance that separated the art from social meanings and communication functions. It could be  revealed in a phrase “tanpa sangsi yang membuat kematiannya jadi puisi” (with no doubt that make his death into poem) and “yang membuatnya jadi abadi”(that drives it to be immortal). Schizophrenia was captured in the clitics of “-Ku” (My) dan “-Mu” (Your) in the expression of “mencintaiMu” (love You) and “mencintaiKu” (love Me) as an object marker. Schizophrenia was also in the complexity of fragmented poem even the relationship between the first and second line in each verse also indicated the same symptoms. Those findings characterized the aesthetics of postmodernism poem, a feature that utilized unlimited images and markers by destroying meaning, exposing things that have been considered as a taboo to the implicatur of deep contemplation, intensive thinking, and undevided attention of the readers’ as postmodern aesthetic characteristics.