The life style between Indonesia and America culture in the inter cultural teenagers of characters in “Esti Kinasih” and “Cathy Hopkins” Teenlit
By: Desi Sasmito
Teenlit (Teen literature) becomes one of trend setter teenagers today. It is proved by a lot of film or “Sinetron” which based on Teenlit, such as Cintapucinno, Jomblo, Fairish, Dealova and many more. All of their Teenlit has been popular and succeed. This genre tells about the teenager’s life now days. Almost the entire story tells about the feeling of teenagers, boys and girls. It is about the beautiful love story that is always the teenager’s dream about. This fiction genre becomes very popular in girls around 20 century. As the same in America, Teenlit tells about the problem of couple, school, party “sweet seventeen” and friendship.
As we know the theory about post-colonial has been produced in all societies into which the imperial force of the west has interfered. Post-colonial criticism concerns about the operation of politics, social, cultural and psychological between colonialist and anti-colonialist. This theory brings the mind set of teenagers in Indonesia as anti-colonialist to behave in west culture and life style.
The lifestyle in Teenlit brings a reflection of the teenagers in different country. They create a fiction that derived from their experience and transfer it into story about teenagers’ life style. As we know, the western create this genre as reflection of the teenager’s world. The teenagers, especially girls don’t read a “Novel” that dedicated for the adult. Teenlit as one of product of the teenager’s world could form the behavior through the lifestyle.
The objectivity of these cases is to find out the pattern of teenagers life style and dream how they communicate to build a relationship, engaged in culture, living in modern era, and the way they fall in love. Like we may see on the Esti Kinasih’s teenlit, the characters of teenlit show the life of being teenagers. They are closely to the relationship as a couple who fall in love, broken heart, how they defend from broken heart until the problem of bad boy. In America, as we can see in Cathy Hopskins’ teenlit, they are the same pattern of the story even though they different in culture but they have the same love story.
In this case, Teenlit offers an insight how teenagers behave in different culture. As Eastern country or Ex-colonized nation they still continue their culture of the colonialist. Even the center of the culture of life style now is still dominated by Western culture. Unconsciously, the Eastern countries are easy to be influenced and bring it as they own culture. They adapted with local culture and claim it as their own culture. Look at in Cathy Hopskins “Mate Date Series” she describes in details about American teenagers life style. It is not quiet far from the life style story in Esti Kinasih “Fairish” she describes Indonesian teenagers now days. Teenlit has their own language that why teenagers like this work. They feel that the story is telling about absolutely their life.
In addition, a Teenlit bring the positive impact. We confess that the teenagers’ time is not just the time to be always happy, but the time where they are trying to find who they are.
The same story patterns both Indonesia and American culture create new environment, it can distinguish their life style beyond culture. The background of both countries is not the same, but the way they think is the same to appearance the teenager’s life style.
