A discourse analysis of Islam Nusantara in Said Agil Siradj's speeches

Abstract

This thesis is an analysis of Said Agil Siradj's (SAS) speech utterances on Islam Nusantara (IN) discourse. It does this by analysing the selected SAS's speeches during his leadership in the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) (2010-2021). The analysis describes the application of IN discourse and its relationship with the NU aims that maintain the Ahlussunnah wal Jamaah (Aswaja) ideology. The study employs the Speech Act of Illocutionary Acts to investigate SAS's speech feature and its contribution of IN discourse to the NU community. Given the context, the speaker highlighted the important messages to protect the NU members from the New Islamic Movements (NIM) that flourished in society. Furthermore, this project is essential to give insight and maintain unity for the importance of inclusive religious teaching within a pluralist society in Indonesia. To achieve the aims of this study, the analysis availed the spoken discourse of SAS's speech utterances on IN, particularly since its declaration in Jombang 2015. The data were gathered from SAS's selected speeches on YouTube channels by downloading and transcribing them using NVivo and Microsoft Excel. Then, the transcription process was done carefully to access the objective data of spoken discourse becoming part of the research analysis (Leeuwen, 2008); Litosseliti (2010). The result of the study shows that there is an indication in SAS's speech utterances of IN correlated with the aims of the NU purpose, e.g., the attention of the speaker's utterances on the importance of nationalism, tolerance, anti-radicalism, the preservation of local culture, and so on. Those issues have become the attention and feature within the ideology of Ahlussunnah wal Jamaah (Aswaja) in the NU. The relation of SAS's speech utterances with the NU's aims was represented in his acts while delivering the speeches. For instance, the speaker (SAS) performed his speech utterance by using various acts: Representatives, Directives, Commissives, Expressives, and Declarations. In addition, the speaker highlighted the use of the special terms or register forms for performing the religious practices in his community, such as slametan, tahlilan, istighosah and mauludan. Meanwhile, the form of Direct and Indirect Speech Acts were produced by the speaker as part of polite interactions and to maintain the relationships with the NU members.

Date of Award	2023
Original language	English