The Subject of Melancholia in Toer’s Bumi Manusia: Lacan’s Psychoanalytic Study

Abstract

This study aims to analyse and find a description of the subject of melancholia in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. This study is conducted with a cursive approach by using the perspective of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic study that looks for a small lost object. This research is a qualitative study using the literature study method. The main data source for this research is the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The results of this study found three types of melancholia subjects, namely generational melancholia, cultural melancholia, and alienation melancholia. Nyai Ontosoroh as the main character in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is a melancholia subject who experiences all three types of melancholia, namely generational melancholia, cultural melancholia, and alienation melancholia. Furthermore, the character Minke experiences two types of melancholia, namely cultural melancholia and alienation melancholia. Nyai Ontosoroh as the main character in the novel Bumi Manusia by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, is a melancholia subject who experiences all three types of melancholia, namely generational melancholia, cultural melancholia, and alienation melancholia. Furthermore, the character Minke experiences two types of melancholia, namely cultural melancholia and alienation melancholia. Nyai Ontosoroh and Minke are subjects that represent the author's view that wants to criticize two social systems, namely feudal society (colonized) and modern capitalist society (colonizer). These two social systems bring profound changes to the clash of generations in the world of the colonized. The subject's reaction to the changing values of society made them face a clash of cultures and eventually feel a tremendous alienation in their lives.