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Interpreting Violence in Religious Story: An Intertextual Analysis on the Story of Habil-Qabil in Contemporary Indonesian Literature

 

This dissertation examines popular religious story of Habil-Qabil in contemporary Indonesian literature. Popular books of the story were chosen randomly as the object of research based on their availability and accessibility. The story is assumed to have passed through several levels of interpretation, and it is seen as a cultural device in delivering religious teachings on the discourse of violence. This research aims at discovering religious cultural elements which construct Muslims view on violence based on the reading to the story. These elements are examined in three textual domains: narrative domain, intertextual domain, and religious cultural domain. In the narrative domain, the story of Habil-Qabil is approached through critical narrative analysis as the first method to discover popular description on violence. The second method is intertextuality which analyzes the story through its interrelatedness in Muslim and Judeo-Christian literature. This method is used to discover mosaic of meanings of violence from various narrations of the story. Cultural memory as the third method observes the story in its cultural domain with the purpose of disclosing dynamic religious cultural elements of Muslims outlook on violence. This research found that the meaning of violence develops into complex relationships. From the three methods of reading to the story in contemporary Indonesian literature it is discovered that the popular Muslim insight on violence is that it is regarded as a diabolic collusion. Violence is evil because of its relation to the devil. The other findings from this research showed dynamic religious cultural construction of violence being related to theological issues, moral illnesses, and socio-legal (fiqh) perspective.

Key WordsHabil-Qabil, violence, critical-narrative, intertextuality, and cultural memory