HEROISM MANIFESTATION IN JAPANESE AND JAVANESE
TRADITIONS; Folklore Momotarō and Epic Bharatayuda’s Similarity and
Difference
Fajria Noviana, student’s number: A4A008005, 2010, 167 pages of content, 3 pages
of bibliography, 8 pages of appendix, 9 charts, 4 tables. Semarang: Department of
Literature, Postgraduate Program, Diponegoro University.
This comparative study was conducted to find out how heroism in Japanese
and Javanese traditions is manifested into two literary works representing those
traditions: Momotarō and Bharatayuda. This study is also aimed to find out the
similarities of heroism manifestation in the two traditions. The reason for conducting
this study is from the assumption that heroism is a universal concept. Therefore, such
heroisms have similarities although they may come from different traditional
backgrounds. Structural analysis and binary opposition were used in this study. The
structural analysis was used to obtain the data on traditional background of the areas
and the actions done by the main characters, while binary opposition was used to
obtain the data on the main characters’ heroic actions which were then concluded as
the heroic manifestation. The result shows that the heroismmanifestation in Japanese
and Javanese traditions has the following things in common: 1) conquering enemies,
2) protecting the members of the group, 3) keeping promise, 4) recompense, and 5)
acting ethically. The result of this study can also prove the truth of the assumption