Writing Animals: Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism in the Manuscript of Syair Raja Tedung dengan Raja Katak

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-503-4_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

animal studies; biosemiotics; classical Malay literature; environmental humanities; W. Jhon Colleta

Abstract

Research on animal characters in literary works is usually limited to examining the symbolic meanings of animals from a human perspective using traditional semiotics. This study examines the depictions of animals in Syair Raja Tedung dengan Raja Katak through the perspective of Animal Studies, specifically using the biosemiotic literary criticism framework developed by W. John Coletta [1] to explore the diverse representations of animals. By using three biosemiotic relational methods, this study aims to explain the depiction of animals in their umwelt. The results of the motivated relation analysis found that the Syair Raja Tedung dengan Raja Katak uses anthropomorphic patterns to depict animals, which underscores their symbolic role in conveying human social values. The representational relation analysis shows that the patterns of imaginary world building and the anthropomorphic narrative structure of animals in the manuscript reflect the anthropocentric ideology prevailing in classical Malay culture. Meanwhile, the results of the complementary relation analysis show that the depiction of animals with various attributes is in fact a complementary form to the idea of humanism. And because of that, the ecological necessity in the manuscript is complementary to human interests.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Herpin Nopiandi Khurosan
AU  - Khidmati Amalia Elyaum
AU  - M. Irham Maolana
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/19
TI  - Writing Animals: Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism in the Manuscript of Syair Raja Tedung dengan Raja Katak
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Culture and Sustainable Development (ICOCAS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 225
EP  - 233
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-503-4_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-503-4_28
ID  - Khurosan2025
ER  -