Rice Cultivation Spells and Their Relevance to Literary Learning: A riffaterre semiotic analysis

Abstract

Rice cultivation spells are spoken by community or traditional leaders, and can also be read by farmers when sowing seeds in the rice field. In sowing seeds, the spells are spoken as a repellent of disasters, and as an educational tool. The presence of spells in the implementation of education is an effort to introduce and preserve culture to the younger generation. This study aims to describe the semiotic features of the rice cultivation spells in Sundanese regions and their relevance to literary learning based upon local wisdom. The method deployed in this study was a descriptive qualitative involving a content analysis technique. The analysis shows that the rice-cultivation spells form as the request for permission from God as the holder of the universe, the gratitude to God for the gifts he has granted, the presence of rice cultivation as a legacy of the ancestors, and the function of rice component for human life. This study is relevant to literary learning in a way that rice cultivation spells can be integrated into literary appreciation learning in high schools. Keywords—spells; riffaterre semiotics; hermeneutics; literary appreciation learning