Narrative strategies and interpretations of emotions in the works of post-Islamic generation child writers: An analysis of three Kecil Kecil Punya Karya series

Studies of emotions within the framework of the seminal work History of Emotion are rapidly developing, and this realm involves interdisciplinary studies from different sciences, including literature studies, since literature often contains emotion as its most important aspect. This research was inspired by a Max Planck Institute Berlin’s (n.d.) project that investigated the socialization of emotion in works of European children’s literature published from 1870 to 1970. This research focused on narrative strategies and interpretations of emotions used by the child writers in the Kecil Kecil Punya Karya (KKPK) [Children’s Literature] series, published by Dar!Mizan. Using narrative studies and the sociology of literature while considering the child writers as members of the Post-Islamic generation, this research aimed to examine narrative strategies and interpretations of emotions within three KKPK series. The result of this research finds narrative strategies similar to fairy tales, and this can be interpreted as a sort of sharing session. Using Asef Bayat’s concept of Post-Islamism, which is elaborated by Ariel Heryanto, this analysis shows a unique gender perspective and religious motivation within the narrative interpretations of Muslim middle-class child writers’ emotions.