Literary and Political Identity from a Cultural Studies Perspective

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between literature and society in Mbojo's politics identity. For this reason, the aim is to describe the form of political identity of Mbojo society in literary texts from the perspective of cultural studies. The theory used in this study is the theory of literature and political identity. Literature has been used to designate any `image native', `creative', or `fictional' writing, whether in poetry, drama, or prose. Identity is an essence that is interpreted through sense of signs, beliefs, attitudes, and lifestyles. Identity is considered to be both personal and social and marks that we are the same or different from other people. This research used a type of qualitative research with the cultural studies perspective. It means that the cultural studies serve as an analytical perspective in dismantling or interpreting the texts in the novel. The research stages started from (a) preparation (initial observation and determination of research object); (b) data collection (reading and recording); and (c) analyzing and interpreting and triangulating (discussing with colleagues, comparing various relevant theories, and comparing information or data in different ways). In this study, it was found that the political identity featured in the Tambora 1815 novel is Islamic. The novel describes the values of obedience in following the orders of the leader, in this case is Ulil Amri. Leaders (Ulil Amri) are people who have responsibility of social problems.