Semiotika Kultural: Mekanisme Depolitisasi Trauma Sosial melalui Motif Mitos dalam Representasi Sastra Jawa

Abstract

This study is motivated by the tension between rational thinking and mystical beliefs within the Gunungkidul community regarding the phenomenon of suicide as represented in literary discourse. It examines the mechanisms of layered signification through which the myth of pulung gantung is constructed and maintained as a collective truth within Iman Budhi Santosa's novel Pulung Gantung Tali Pati. Employing Roland Barthes' cultural semiotic approach, the study positions material objects, symbolic events, and narrative motifs as units of analysis. Through layered close reading of the entire text, five motif clusters are identified that operate sequentially within a single metalanguage chain: visual manifestation, material relic, recurring temporal pattern, sacralization of space, and collapse of rationality. These five clusters not only construct the myth from within but also enact a depoliticization mechanism that evacuates structural issues like poverty, bullying, psychological pressure, and social isolation from their historical context, simplifying them into a naturalized supernatural fate. The study concludes that the myth of pulung gantung functions as a metalanguage that naturalizes social trauma, rendering it immune to rational critique and demanding no structural change from the community that inherits it.