Voices Unheard: Exploring female representation in Sundanese folk stories through transitivity and semantic code

Abstract

Folk stories provide a valuable insight into the cultural values and lifestyle of a society, as has been proven by a lot of previous research. However, most research on folk stories focus only on the morals and/or traditions in the stories. Linguistic studies on folk stories have also only focused on the surface text; not much research has been done to reveal the underlying messages on how the text perceived females and their roles in society. This study aims to reveal female representation in two popular Sundanese folk stories, “Sasakala Talaga Warna” (“The Legend of the Lake of Color”) and “Sasakala Sangkuriang” (“The Legend of Sangkuriang”), using Halliday’s transitivity analysis and Barthes’ semantic code. It combines transitivity analysis, focusing on participant roles in material processes, with an analysis of semantic codes. The findings reveal that female characters are positioned as agents in material processes, suggesting agency and power. Their representation in the stories is revealed through the semantic code—the code of connotation shows how their agency is limited to domestic settings or in conjunction with male characters. This means that the agency represents traditional female roles and power dynamics. Therefore, it perpetuates female stereotypes. This study contributes to the literature by providing an in-depth analysis of the Sundanese folk stories’ representation of female characters, which has been largely overlooked in previous research.