Multilingualism as a Manifestation of the Desire of Split Subject in the Novel Pintu by Fira Basuki

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_37How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Multilingualism; Subject Split; Lack; Objet Petit A

Abstract

This study will discuss the issue of multilingualism in Indonesian literature with a Lacanian psychoanalytic perspective. This approach is very relevant to explain the relationship between multilingualism and the author’s subjectivity. The author, as the subject, places multilingualism in Indonesian literary works as a manifestation of metaphor and metonymy in order to deceive the censorship in order to realize his desires. This study focuses on the novel Pintu by Fira Basuki. The data collected consisted of words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that formally demonstrate multilingual language use. Analysis focused on the use of metaphor and metonymy as manifestations of desire to circumvent censorship. The results of the study show that through the novel Pintu, Fira Basuki elaborates on multilingualism through the use of Indonesian as the main language and includes Javanese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, and English in certain parts. The use of these languages marks Fira Basuki as a divided subject, which shows that Fira, like other Indonesian authors who write multilingual literature, is actually trying to find an objet petit a, which marks her as a subject lacking, in a search for endless fulfilment. The objet petit a is Indonesia, which in the song Indonesia Raya is referred to as being “there,” where the author’s subject stands as a guide, who is constantly in search.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Pujiharto Pujiharto
AU  - Annisa Nur Harwiningtyas
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/28
TI  - Multilingualism as a Manifestation of the Desire of Split Subject in the Novel Pintu by Fira Basuki
BT  - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of Research on Language 2025 (IROLE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 493
EP  - 503
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_37
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-563-8_37
ID  - Pujiharto2026
ER  -