Nansarunai was an ancient kingdom that remains memorable and proud of the Ma’anyan Dayaks. The story of Nansarunai is preserved in an oral tradition called Tanuhui. This paper will discuss the structural component of the Nansarunai story according to the perspective of A.J. Greimas’s semiotic narratology. The narrative structure study includes two components, namely the syntactic structure and the semantic structure. The study of the syntactic structure component involves deep structure and surface structure as the basic structure of meaning. The study of the deep structure aspect relates to the narrative program, which examines the basic narrative syntagms that show the relationship between the actants. Therefore, the study will begin by describing the actantial scheme, then proceed with the study of the functional structure of the story. The study of the semantic structural component includes three semantic axes, namely the axis of desire, the axis of power, and the axis of knowledge. The result of this study shows that Nansarunai was an ancient kingdom that remains remembered and becomes the cultural matrix of the Ma'anyan Dayak society. Even though the kingdom was destroyed by Majapahit royal forces, the Nansarunai kingdom lingers and have a great influence on the minds of the Ma’anyan Dayaks. Therefore, it can be said that Nansarunai Tanuhui is a projection of the wishes of the Ma’anyan Dayak society towards the glory and strength of their ancestors, not only in the past but also in the present.
Volume 12 | 07-Special Issue
Pages: 1104-1114
DOI: 10.5373/JARDCS/V12SP7/20202209