Theater I La Galigo by Director Robert Wilson: A Linguistic Study

Abstract

The literary work I La Galigo is an ancient book in the form of poetry that contains the myth of the creation of the Buginese civilization which was crowned by UNESCO as World Memory. Literary reading of I La Galigo is done while singing Laoang or Selleang songs. In fact, its existence is increasingly disappearing in the life of the Buginese Society today. I La Galigo then returned and attracted international attention after director Robert Wilson presented it in the form of a play written by Rhoda Grauer. By presenting a story about the process of the formation of the world as well as the long and spiritual journey of Sawerigading, the theater I La Galigo directed by Robert Wilson is considered capable of giving a stronger impression to the audience. This paper aims to 1) explore the theater of I La Galigo by Robert Wilson from the study of Linguistics, and 2) reveal the change of literary works of I La Galigo into theater performances and the process of transferring written literary works called I La Galigo into script theater performances. This study uses a qualitative method with data obtained from the literature study. It focuses on looking at the adaptation in the literary work of I La Galigo into a theatrical performance and the process of changing a written literary work, namely I La Galigo into a script for a theatrical performance by using dramaturgy theory and discourse transfer method.