Epistemic Multiplicity and Semantic Warfare: Kidung Rumekso Ing Wengi as Heterotopic Text in Contemporary Javanese-Islamic Practice

Authors

  • Muhammad Abdullah

    Indonesian Literature Study Program, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Diponegoro University, Semarang 50275, Indonesia
  • Onok Yayang Pamungkas

    Indonesian Literature Study Program, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Muhammadiyah Purwokerto, Banyumas 53182, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i8.10686
Received: 24 June 2025 | Revised: 7 July 2025 | Accepted: 17 July 2025 | Published Online: 1 August 2025

Abstract

This study examines Kidung Rumekso Ing Wengi [Song of Protection for the Night] as “heterotopic text”—a discursive space where competing epistemologies coexist without synthesis, challenging dominant paradigms in religious studies. Employing integrated deconstructive analysis, critical discourse analysis, and phenomenological ethnography across three interpretive communities in contemporary Indonesia, this research demonstrates how the kidung operates through “epistemic multiplicity”—generating irreducible semantic contradictions while maintaining operative efficacy through logical incoherence. Textual analysis reveals “escalating impossibility”in protective claims that exceed empirical verification yet remain collectively meaningful. Discourse analysis exposes “semantic warfare" where pesantren authorities accomplish “theological colonization,” rural practitioners maintain “semantic insurgency,”and urban communities employ“therapeutic appropriation”to advance exclusive authority claims. Despite interpretive violence, phenomenological in vestigation reveals remarkable consistency in embodied spiritual effects across communities (92% temporal distortion, 96% respiratory modification, 78% somatic energy sensations), indicating “embodied universality within interpretive particularity.” Statistical analysis of 89 interviews documents how spiritual meaning emerges through “agonistic hermeneutics”where authority develops through conflict rather than consensus, challenging hermeneutical approaches that assume religious communities achieve mutual understanding through dialogue. This investigation contributes to postcolonial Islamic studies by demonstrating how local spiritual languages function as contested sites where normative Islam negotiates with indigenous expressions, while advancing“postdisciplinary”religious studies methodology that operates through productive tensions between analytical approaches. The findings reveal Kidung Rumekso Ing Wengi as exemplifying contemporary spiritual authority that transcends conventional binaries between orthodox and popular Islam.

Keywords:

Kidung Rumekso Ing Wengi; Heterotopic Text; Epistemic Multiplicity; Agonistic Hermeneutics; Postcolonial Islamic Studies; Semantic Warfare

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Abdullah, M., & Pamungkas, O. Y. (2025). Epistemic Multiplicity and Semantic Warfare: Kidung Rumekso Ing Wengi as Heterotopic Text in Contemporary Javanese-Islamic Practice. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(8), 345–358. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i8.10686

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Vol. 7 , Iss. 8 (August 2025): In progress

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