Tiffany Tsao as a Cultural Agent in Indonesian Literary Circulation: A World Literature Case Study

Abstract

This paper investigates the function of Tiffany Tsao as a cultural agent in disseminating Indonesian literature to world literature. Although existing studies have extensively explored her micro-level language use and translation techniques, a noticeable lacuna still exists in relation to her non-textual contribution as an institutional figure and public intellectual. In order to fill this lacuna, this paper attempts to explore the way in which Tsao utilizes her position within transnational networks to reform and criticize the visibility of Indonesian literature within a global context. Using the qualitative approach with the design of a case study, this study employs a primary source corpus consisting of essays, interviews, speeches, and institutional documents ranging from 2019 to 2025. These results show how Tsao’s embodied and embedded cultural capital allows her to position herself authoritatively in translation, whereas the honor of awards such as the PEN Translation Prize boosts her symbolic capital. Moreover, her scholarly work brings to light the oppressive gatekeeping practices within English-language publishing that make it necessary for periphery texts to become “foreign in familiar ways.” This study argues that translation itself is a contentious act of cultural production, one in which Indonesian literature gains global distribution through Tsao’s resistant mediation.