INTERTEXTUALITY IN JOKO ANWAR’S MOVIES: IN SEARCH OF THE MEANING OF ILLUMINATI SYMBOLS

Abstract

This thesis comes as the result of what happens in Joko Anwar’s Pintu Terlarang(The Forbidden Door) movie when it uniquely uses the Illuminati symbols as part of the movie. As it digs more it turns out that some other Joko Anwar’s movies which are Kala (The Dead Time), and Fiksi (Fiction) also use the Illuminati symbol. Therefore the main objectives of this thesis are to analyze the intertextual relation among Joko Anwar’s movies, some Hollywood movies and Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons in searching the Illuminati symbol best known as ‘All Seeing Eye’ which commonly in form of an eye or an eye inside a triangle, and the Freemasons symbol called ‘Square and Compass’. With previous research on Illuminati symbols and intertextuality theory presented by Roland Barthes this thesis tries to interpret the meaning of the symbols. This thesis also uses Barthes’ connotative procedures as the approach of analysis because readers are divided into two, consumers that see the symbols at denotative meaning and readers that see the symbols at connotative meaning. From the research that has been done it can be said that Joko Anwar’s movies are highly intertextual which uses intertextual references to create pastiches of not only noir movies, but of the other world famous works. This creation of pastiches speaks of its own structures and the way it is made, and it depends on the critical reader’s ability to read it. The intertextuality in Joko Anwar’s movies happens with various images taken from the scenes that show the similar way or tactics used in Hollywood movies in embedding the secret societies symbols (Illuminati/Freemason), and the way it described in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons as part of conspiracy theory.