A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ON MASONIC SYMBOLS IN SELECTED DEWA’S ALBUM COVERS

Abstract

This thesis deals with semiotic analysis which concerns on the analysis of symbols pictured in selected Dewa album covers, they are Dewa 19 (1992), Bintang Lima (2000), Cintailah Cinta (2002), and Laskar Cinta (2004). The symbols analyzed in this thesis are the great Pyramid, The Winged Heart,The One Eye, and Lafdzul Jalalah which bring great confusion over three different ideologies. They are freemasonry, Satanism and Zionism. The goal of the study is to find out the relation of the symbols in Dewa album covers and the fremasonry and to show the plausible meaning intended in the symbols of Dewa album covers. In fact, the symbols give strong contribution to trigger off racial issues. The aim is to avoid a greater turbulence within the society since the interpretations of the symbols nowadays become more and more sentimental. Thus, this writing is projected to give more explanation of how the symbols should be academically interpreted. As the result, it will give a new way of perspective to see the symbol from the angle of semiotics. The data applied in this writing is qualitative data which means the data is in a form of images. Data collection in this thesis is documentary study. The data is documented from books and website resources. This thesis is a descriptive study which elaborates De Saussure’s role of structuralism down to Barthesian Post Structuralism of Myth. The development of the theory is described in this thesis in order to ease the readers to analyze the data. Myth is generated from the previous semiological chain, the connotation and denotation. In other words, Myth is the global term of the signifier and signified. The finding of this study indicates that there is a red line between Dewa and freemason, in which both of them adopt the Myth of God’s universal quality. However this ideal never goes hand in hand with Satanism and Zionism due to they do not share the same perspectives. In conjunction with the support for English Department, the data presented in this thesis give additional literature of Freemason, Satanism and Zionism. However, there are some new questions coming up in the end of the writing, such as why do so many people produce sentimental interpretations? Next, why the myth of the symbols could not be more apparent before the people? Surely, the further study is required to answer the upcoming questions. At last, this thesis wishfully becomes a helpful illustration to the ones who have strong desire to work on the same discipline.