Ecologies of Circulation: Coastal Power and Relational Worlds  in Royyan Julian's Tiang Garam and Pramoedya Ananta Toer's Arus Balik

Heru S.P. Saputra; L. Dyah Purwita Wardani; Wiwin Indiarti; Titik Maslikatin; Edy Hariyadi; Gio Pramanda Galaxi; Dinda Rahma Antika; Carenina Putri

doi:10.55927/ijsmr.v4i9.162

Authors

Heru S.P. Saputra Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5246-6852
L. Dyah Purwita Wardani Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6597-7977
Wiwin Indiarti Universitas PGRI Banyuwangi https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5134-7520
Titik Maslikatin Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2448-0867
Edy Hariyadi Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0336-1331
Gio Pramanda Galaxi Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4631-8595
Dinda Rahma Antika Universitas Jember
Carenina Putri Universitas Jember

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55927/ijsmr.v4i9.162

Keywords:

Coastal Power, Ecologies of Circulation, Indonesian Literature, Maritime Mobility, Relational Ecology

Abstract

Coastal environments are often read as spaces or resources, obscuring circulations sustaining their livability. This study compares Royyan Julian’s Tiang Garam [Pillar of Salt] and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Arus Balik [The Turn of the Tide] to examine how coastal worlds are sustained, captured, disrupted, and reopened. Using comparative qualitative literary analysis combining close reading, relational ecological textual analysis, and deductive–inductive thematic coding, 80 textual units were analyzed. Four patterns emerged: relational infrastructures, capture of circulation through access and route control, relational dispossession, and ambivalent repair. Findings show coastal power extends beyond extraction and territorial possession to governing connections among people, commodities, infrastructures, and more-than-human life. The study proposes ecologies of circulation for understanding coastal power, maintenance, and world-making.

References

Alaimo, S. (2016). Exposed: Environmental politics and pleasures in posthuman times. University of Minnesota Press. DOI: 10.5749/minnesota/9780816621958.001.0001.

Badio, S., Nurgiyantoro, B., & Hartono. (2019). Nilai perjuangan dalam novel Arus Balik karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer [Values of struggle in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s novel Arus Balik]. Indonesian Language Education and Literature, 5(1), 33–46. DOI: 10.24235/ileal.v5i1.3723.

Best, S., & Marcus, S. (2009). Surface reading: An introduction. Representations, 108(1), 1–21. DOI: 10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1.

Blaser, M. (2009). Political ontology: Cultural studies without “cultures”? Cultural Studies, 23(5–6), 873–896. DOI: 10.1080/09502380903208023.

Blaser, M. (2013). Ontological conflicts and the stories of peoples in spite of Europe: Toward a conversation on political ontology. Current Anthropology, 54(5), 547–568. DOI: 10.1086/672270.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. DOI: 10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2019). Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 11(4), 589–597. DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806.

Campbell, S., & Gurney, L. (2024). What are we protecting? Rethinking relational values and nature(s). Ecosystems and People, 20(1), 2315973. DOI: 10.1080/26395916.2024.2315973.

Campling, L., & Colás, A. (2018). Capitalism and the sea: Sovereignty, territory and appropriation in the global ocean. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 36(4), 776–794. DOI: 10.1177/0263775817737319.

Carse, A. (2012). Nature as infrastructure: Making and managing the Panama Canal watershed. Social Studies of Science, 42(4), 539–563. DOI: 10.1177/0306312712440166.

Chan, K. M. A., Balvanera, P., Benessaiah, K., Chapman, M., Díaz, S., Gómez-Baggethun, E., Gould, R., Hannahs, N., Jax, K., Klain, S., Luck, G. W., Martín-López, B., Muraca, B., Norton, B., Ott, K., Pascual, U., Satterfield, T., Tadaki, M., Taggart, J., & Turner, N. (2016). Why protect nature? Rethinking values and the environment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 113(6), 1462–1465. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1525002113.

Colás, A., & Campling, L. (2023). Maritime temporalities and capitalist development. Geography Compass, 17(7), e12715. DOI: 10.1111/gec3.12715.

Cresswell, T. (2010). Towards a politics of mobility. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 28(1), 17–31. DOI: 10.1068/d11407.

DeLoughrey, E. M. (2007). Routes and roots: Navigating Caribbean and Pacific island literatures. University of Hawai‘i Press.

Descola, P. (2013). Beyond nature and culture (J. Lloyd, Trans.). University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226145006.001.0001.

Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the pluriverse: Radical interdependence, autonomy, and the making of worlds. Duke University Press. DOI: 10.1215/9780822371816.

Felski, R. (2015). The limits of critique. University of Chicago Press. DOI: 10.7208/9780226294179.

Ferwerda, S. (2024). Blue humanities and the color of colonialism. Environmental Humanities, 16(1), 1–18. DOI: 10.1215/22011919-10943081.

Ganser, A., & Lavery, C. (2023a). Introduction: Maritime im/mobilities. In A. Ganser & C. Lavery (Eds.), Maritime mobilities in Anglophone literature and culture (pp. 1–17). Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-91275-8_1.

Ganser, A., & Lavery, C. (Eds.). (2023b). Maritime mobilities in Anglophone literature and culture. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-91275-8.

Garrard, G. (2023). Ecocriticism (3rd ed.). Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003174011.

Graham, S., & Thrift, N. (2007). Out of order: Understanding repair and maintenance. Theory, Culture & Society, 24(3), 1–25. DOI: 10.1177/0263276407075954.

Guest, G., MacQueen, K. M., & Namey, E. E. (2012). Applied thematic analysis. SAGE. DOI: 10.4135/9781483384436.

Habiburrahman, H., Putri, I., Yanti, A. J., Maulana, R. R., Yuliana, S., & Oktasari, A. F. (2026). Kekerasan simbolik dan resistensi kelas dalam Tiang Garam karya Royyan Julian: Kajian sosiologi sastra [Symbolic violence and class resistance in Royyan Julian’s Tiang Garam: A sociology of literature study]. Indonesian Journal of Innovation Multidisipliner Research, 4(3). DOI: 10.69693/ijim.v4i3.1488.

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press. DOI: 10.1215/9780822373780.

Harvey, D. (2003). The new imperialism. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780199264315.001.0001.

Heise, U. K. (2008). Sense of place and sense of planet: The environmental imagination of the global. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195335637.001.0001.

Hofmeyr, I. (2022). Dockside reading: Hydrocolonialism and the custom house. Duke University Press. DOI: 10.1215/9781478022367.

Hofmeyr, I., Lavery, C., & Nuttall, S. (Eds.). (2024). Reading for water: Materiality and method. Routledge.

Hofmeyr, I., Nuttall, S., & Lavery, C. (2022). Reading for water. Interventions, 24(3), 303–322. DOI: 10.1080/1369801X.2021.2015711.

Julian, R. (2023). Tiang Garam [Pillar of Salt]. Pelangi Sastra.

Kluwick, U. (2025). Blue humanities. In E. Zemanek & T. Müller (Eds.), Live handbook environmental humanities. J.B. Metzler. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-662-70886-6_14-1.

Kohn, E. (2013). How forests think: Toward an anthropology beyond the human. University of California Press. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520276109.001.0001.

Kumaidi. (2017). Konteks sejarah maritim Indonesia dalam novel Arus Balik karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Kajian New Historism [The context of Indonesian maritime history in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Arus Balik: A new historicist study]. EDU-KATA, 4(2), 195–204. DOI: 10.52166/kata.v4i2.1022.

Kumaidi. (2021). Representasi budaya pesisir dalam novel Arus Balik karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Kajian New Historism [Representation of coastal culture in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Arus Balik: A new historicist study]. Al-Kamal: Jurnal Kajian Islam, 1(1), 99–124.

Larkin, B. (2013). The politics and poetics of infrastructure. Annual Review of Anthropology, 42, 327–343. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-anthro-092412-155522.

Lavery, C. (2021). Writing ocean worlds: Indian Ocean fiction in English. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-87116-1.

Love, H. (2010). Close but not deep: Literary ethics and the descriptive turn. New Literary History, 41(2), 371–391. DOI: 10.1353/nlh.2010.0007.

Maslikatin, T., Saputra, H. S. P., Umniyyah, Z., Ramadhan, A. B., & Wardani, L. D. P. (2025). Natural harmony in Ahmad Tohari’s trilogy Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, Lintang Kemukus Dini Hari, Jentera Bianglala: A study of literary ecology. International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews, 6(11), 5739–5748. DOI: 10.55248/gengpi.06.1125.3904.

Maslikatin, T., Saputra, H. S. P., Umniyyah, Z., Ramadhan, A. B., Galaxi, G. P., & Mahfudah, U. L. (2026). Strategies for the remystification of narrative in Okky Madasari’s Mata novel series: A Wendy B. Faris magical realism study. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 31(2), 1746–1761. DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2026.31.2.2245.

Mentz, S. (2023). A poetics of planetary water: The blue humanities after John Gillis. Coastal Studies & Society, 2(1), 137–152. DOI: 10.1177/26349817221133199.

Mentz, S. (2024). An introduction to the blue humanities. Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003166665.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE.

Muslimin, M. F. (2022). Konektivitas bandar-bandar di jalur rempah dalam novel Arus Balik [Port connectivity along the spice route in the Novel Arus Balik]. Pangadereng: Jurnal Hasil Penelitian Ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora, 8(1), 59–80. DOI: 10.36869/pjhpish.v8i1.237.

Mączyńska, M. (2023). Return of the “savage” in contemporary climate fiction. Green Letters, 27(2), 163–175. DOI: 10.1080/14688417.2023.2227640.

Nahdhiyah, N., Rahman, F., Abas, H., & Pattu, M. A. (2023). Ecocritical study on relationships between humans, nature, and God in the novel The Alchemist. Cogent Arts & Humanities, 10(1), 2170019. DOI: 10.1080/23311983.2023.2170019.

Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard University Press. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674061194.

Puri, S. (2026). Hydrocolonialism and imaginative waterways: Towards a post-colonial Caribbean poetics for freshwater justice. In Oxford intersections: Environmental change and human experience. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/9780198945239.003.0077.

Putri, A. E. (2019). Kepahlawanan tokoh Wiranggaleng dalam novel Arus Balik karya Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Teori The Hero’s Journey Christopher Vogler) [The heroism of Wiranggaleng in Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Arus Balik: Christopher Vogler’s the hero’s journey theory]. BAPALA: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia, 5(2), 1–15.

Rahman, S., & Cindi, D. T. (2025). Eksploitasi alam dalam perspektif sastra: Kajian ekologi sastra novel Tiang Garam karya Royyan Julian dan implikasinya pada pendidikan literasi lingkungan [Environmental exploitation from a literary perspective: An ecocritical study of Royyan Julian’s Tiang Garam and its implications for environmental literacy education]. GHANCARAN: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia, Special Edition: Lalonget V, 684–688. DOI: 10.19105/ghancaran.vi.18166.

Ribot, J. C., & Peluso, N. L. (2003). A theory of access. Rural Sociology, 68(2), 153–181. DOI: 10.1111/j.1549-0831.2003.tb00133.x.

Ribó, I. (2024). Developing more-than-human sustain-abilities in the ecocritical classroom. Environmental Education Research, 30(9), 1587–1603. DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2024.2341171.

Ryan, J. C. (2024). Ecocriticism. The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 32(1), 68–90. DOI: 10.1093/ywcct/mbae002.

Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (4th ed.). SAGE.

Saputra, H. S. P., Indiarti, W., Maslikatin, T., Hariyadi, E., Wardani, L. D. P., & Mahfudah, U. L. (2026). Making landscapes extractable: Epistemic politics and relational ecologies in Ayu Welirang’s Jejak Balak and Ayu Utami’s Bilangan Fu. International Journal of Contemporary Sciences, 4(8), 2107–2128. DOI: 10.55927/djb1k109.

Saputra, H. S. P., Maslikatin, T., Hariyadi, E., & Umniyyah, Z. (2022). Mantra laut: Kearifan lokal masyarakat maritim dalam memanfaatkan kekayaan bahari di pesisir Nusantara [Sea mantras: Local wisdom of maritime communities in utilizing marine resources along the Indonesian archipelago]. In N. Anoegrajekti, Sudibyo, S. Macaryus, D. Saryono, & I. N. D. Putra (Eds.), Sastra maritim (pp. 99–121). PT Kanisius.

Saputra, H. S. P., Maslikatin, T., Umniyyah, Z., Muhamad, A. B. R., & Wardani, L. D. P. (2025). Ecological and feminine exploitation in Ahmad Tohari’s Bekisar Merah: A materialist ecofeminist perspective of Ariel Salleh. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 28(2), 1269–1280. DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2025.28.2.3820.

Saputra, H. S. P., Prasetya, H., Hermawan, S., Maslikatin, T., & Hariyadi, E. (2026). Narrating forest loss: Ecological violence and environmental silence in a comparative study of Jejak Balak and Supernova: Partikel. NOTION: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Culture, 8(1), 142–157. DOI: 10.12928/notion.v8i1.15606.

Sheller, M. (2018). Theorising mobility justice. Tempo Social, 30(2), 17–34. DOI: 10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2018.142763.

Sheller, M. (2020). Mobility justice. In M. Büscher, M. Freudendal-Pedersen, S. Kesselring, & N. G. Kristensen (Eds.), Handbook of research methods and applications for mobilities (pp. 11–20). Edward Elgar Publishing. DOI: 10.4337/9781788115469.00007.

Steinberg, P. E. (2001). The social construction of the ocean. Cambridge University Press.

Steinberg, P., & Peters, K. (2015). Wet ontologies, fluid spaces: Giving depth to volume through oceanic thinking. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 33(2), 247–264. DOI: 10.1068/d14148p.

Toer, P. A. (1995). Arus Balik [The Turn of the Tide]. Hasta Mitra.

Tsing, A. L. (2015). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press. DOI: 10.1515/9781400873548.