Between Maritime Cosmology and Deep Time: Wendy B. Faris’s Magical Realism and Narrative Remystification in Okky Madasari’s Final Two Mata Novels

Heru S.P. Saputra; Titik Maslikatin; Abu Bakar Ramadhan Muhamad; Zahratul Umniyyah; Ulil Lauhul Mahfudah; Gio Pramanda Galaxi

doi:10.55927/eajmr.v5i9.318

Authors

Heru S.P. Saputra Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5246-6852
Titik Maslikatin Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2448-0867
Abu Bakar Ramadhan Muhamad Universitas Jember
Zahratul Umniyyah Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9911-9287
Ulil Lauhul Mahfudah Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0009-0988-4336
Gio Pramanda Galaxi Universitas Jember https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4631-8595

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i9.318

Keywords:

Deep Time, Magical Realism, Maritime Cosmology, Narrative Remystification, Okky Madasari

Abstract

Contemporary magical realism can challenge the epistemic boundaries through which modernity defines reality. Yet studies of Okky Madasari’s Mata series have emphasized ecology, Bajo culture, mythology, modernism, morality, psychology, and fantasy, leaving narrative remystification in the final novels underexplored. This study examines how Mata dan Manusia Laut (Mata and the Sea People) and Mata dan Nyala Api Purba (Mata and the Primordial Flame) remystify reality through Wendy B. Faris’s framework. Using comparative qualitative literary analysis, close reading, purposive textual sampling, and deductive coding of 26 units, it identifies two complementary trajectories: maritime-cosmological and temporal-technological remystification. The findings show that remystification does not reject scientific reality but pluralizes what can count as real, positioning Indonesian children’s literature within global magical-realism debates.

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