Year: 2026 | Month: July | Volume: 13 | Issue: 7 | Pages: 25-34
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20260704
Kabanti Wa Hadini and Gender Inequality as Depicted in La Niampe's Kabanti Oni Wolio: A Feminist Literary Critique Approach
La Ode Syukur1, Marwati1, La Aso2, La Yani Konisi1, Muhammad Ali Pawiro3
1Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Halu Oleo, Kendari. Indonesia
2Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Halu Oleo, Kendari. Indonesia
3Faculty of Literature, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia
Corresponding Author: La Ode Syukur
ABSTRACT
This study examines the reinterpretation of traditional literature as a space for producing values, ideologies, and gender power relations in the Wolio-Buton literary heritage text. It aims to reveal embedded gender inequalities, explain the linguistic strategies constructing women's positions, and interpret the intersection of gender discourse, religion, and patriarchal culture. Employing a qualitative descriptive methodology, the study integrates feminist literary criticism, feminist discourse analysis, and literary hermeneutics. Data indicating subordination, stereotyping, marginalization, moral burden, social control, and the silencing of women were collected through comprehensive reading, systematic recording, classification, and contextual analysis. The findings reveal that gender inequality manifests in four major patterns: women as objects of male moral judgment; the association of women with broken promises and religious deviation; the exclusion of women's voices from dialogic space; and male suffering as the legitimacy for condemning women’s choices. The study concludes that an asymmetrical gender structure exists, positioning men as interpreters, reminders, and judges, while women function as objects of discussion, blame, and moral-religious control. This research advances Buton literary studies by positioning the text as a cultural archive of gendered power relations.
Keywords: gender inequality; Kabanti Wa Hadini; Wolio literature; feminist criticism; patriarchy; feminist discourse analysis
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