Yogyakarta (21/09/19). A vibrant seminar with the theme “Literature and Critical Thinking” was successfully held at 09.00-12.00 AM in the Faculty of Adab and Cultural Sciences. This seminar was directly under the supervision of English Department Student Association. Over 80 students from different majors and universities such as State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga, Gajah Mada University, State University of Yogyakarta, and Pandanaran Institute were joining this event. However, most of the participants were students of English Department at State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta. Furthermore, the seminar invited two speakers proficient inLiteratureandWriting. Those two speakers were Mr. Danial, M. Hum, an English literature lecturer at State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta, and Dr. Ari Wulandari, M.A, the founder of Griya Kinoysan University who is proficient in writing field (fiction and scriptwriting). These two speakers were accompanied by an Alumni of English Literature 2009 and also a lecturer in CILACS UII, Mr. Fahrurrazzi, M.A.

One of the organizers of this event explained that the reason that they raised this theme was not only because it is a basic knowledge that English Department students in State Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta must understand, but also to extend the comprehension of students about the recent phenomena happening in our society.

In the first session, as the first speaker, Ari Kinoysan explained Literature in accordance with her field, fiction and scriptwriting. Furthermore, she also talked about her career and experience as a fiction author and scriptwriter. She revealed literature in daily life, especially in the television. Otherwise, Mr. Danial as the second speaker started his session by singing a song that has just been recently booming in Indonesia, called Banyulangit popularized by Didi Kempot. He invited the audiences to look at this song as a phenomenon where the consumers change time by time. In the past when this song was first released, this song was rarely fancied by upper-middle-class, but surprisingly, this song is now enjoyed by many circles, and even creates a new community called “Konco Ambyar”.

This seminar went successfully. It could be seen from the enthusiastic audiences when they responded to the speakers during the question and answer session. One of the audiences which is also the student of English Department 2017 asked about literature and cinema in Indonesia. Another thing that made this seminar interesting was that there were some performances, such as singing and piano play.