The Representation of Marginalized Communities’ Lives in Ahmad Tohari’s Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk: A Marginal Literature Study

English

Abstract

This study aims to describe and analyze the representation of marginalized communities’ lives in Ahmad Tohari’s novel Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk. The main issue examined is how marginality is constructed through economic, social, educational, gender, and political dimensions within the novel’s narrative structure. This research employs a sociology of literature approach, focusing on marginal literature studies as the theoretical framework to reveal mechanisms of marginalization and unequal power relations. The method used is descriptive-analytical qualitative research supported by library research techniques. The findings indicate that the people of Dukuh Paruk experience multidimensional marginalization that is systematic and intergenerational. Economic marginalization is represented through structural poverty and dependence on a barren natural environment. Educational marginalization results in low critical awareness and a resigned attitude toward underdevelopment. In terms of gender, the female character Srintil experiences layered exploitation, in which her body is commodified as an economic resource and a cultural object in the name of tradition. Power relations in the novel operate subtly through the normalization of oppressive social practices, such as the bukak-klambu ritual. Through this representation, Ahmad Tohari delivers a social critique of structural inequality and demonstrates that marginalization is a social construction that perpetuates the oppression of vulnerable groups