SIN, THE BODY, and TRUTH: Religious Discourse in Cerita Nyai Dasima The G. Francis (1896) and O. S. Tjiang (1897) Versions from a Foucauldian Perspective

Abstract

This study examines discourses of power and religious doctrine in Cerita Nyai Dasima by comparing two early versions of the text: the prose version by G. Francis (1896) and the poetic (syair) version by O. S. Tjiang (1897). Starting from the fact that Nyai Dasima is a highly popular figure in colonial literature and has been continuously reproduced across different media, this study approaches religion not as a neutral theological system, but as a discourse that regulates morality, the body, and relations of power. The study employs Michel Foucault’s discourse analysis, focusing on the concepts of episteme (The Order of Things), discourse archaeology (The Archaeology of Knowledge), and sexuality, the body, and confession (The History of Sexuality). The analysis shows that G. Francis’s version represents religion as a rigid and punitive regime of truth, in which Nyai Dasima’s sexuality is positioned as the locus of sin and her suffering is legitimized as a moral consequence. By contrast, O. S. Tjiang’s version deploys a subtler and more persuasive discursive strategy, while still operating within the same colonial episteme. These differences are not merely aesthetic, but reflect the authors’ distinct subject positions within the colonial power structure. This study concludes that religion in Cerita Nyai Dasima functions as a productive and historical technology of power, and remains relevant for understanding practices of moral judgment and bodily regulation in contemporary Indonesian society.

Keywords: nyai dasima; discourse; episteme; religious power; doctrine