Leadership Succession in Wayang Purwa in the Perspective of Literary Posthumanology

Abstract

This study aims to describe the reflection, development, and reception of views on leadership in pakeliran wayang kulit (shadow puppet plays), especially in plays about leadership succession. Leadership succession appears in shadow puppet plays, namely: Wahyu Makutharama, Petruk Dadi Ratu, Abimanyu Lair, Parikesit Dadi Ratu, and Gathotkaca Kembar. The data in the form of videos were downloaded from Youtube. The perspective of this research study uses literary posthumanology in wayang. The posthumanological perspective of wayang literature is an attempt to understand the texts of leadership succession in puppetry. The posthumanological perspective was used to trace the leadership aspect in pakeliran wayang narrating succession with all its variants of stories. A qualitative-descriptive approach with inference and a hermeneutic perspective was used in the data analysis to interpret the aspect of leadership in relation to succession in puppet plays. The data were analysed using comparative literature to explore leadership in each play and generally accepted leadership types.