Resistance and Identity Negotiation: Strategies of LGBT Resistance to Heteronormative Power in Selected Indonesian Novels

This research aims to reveal strategies of resistance in the form of resistance and negotiation against practices of power directed at LGBT figures in Indonesian novels, and to show the role of the novel as a space for articulating LGBT resistance within the configuration of Indonesian socio‑political power. The study employs a descriptive textual qualitative design with a literary sociology and gender studies approach, using Michel Foucault’s concept of power relations as the main theoretical framework. The corpus consists of six post-Reform era Indonesian novels selected for the prominence of LGBT themes and conflicts related to stigmatization, violence, and the regulation of sexuality. Research data comprises textual excerpts that depict power relations, stigmatization, exclusion, and various forms of resistance and negotiation carried out by LGBT figures. Data was collected through heuristic reading and the read-and-record method, then organized into data tables, and finally analyzed through in-depth reading and hermeneutic interpretation. The analysis of 58 data units shows that LGBT figures are portrayed not only as marginalized and vulnerable, but also as subjects who practice resistance and negotiation in four main domains: resisting the power of family and heterosexual marriage, negotiating power in workplaces and everyday communities, arranging gradual and selective coming‑out strategies, and using bodily and gender performativity to rearticulate identity. These findings confirm that Indonesian novels function as an important space for the articulation of LGBT resistance to heteronormative power in contemporary Indonesia.