CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter consists some theories and references that are related to this

study. Semiotics and pop-culture theories are the prime studies that will be

presented in this chapter. This chapter also discusses hegemony theory and history

of meme comics.

2.1 The Definition of Semiotics/Semiology

The term of semiology is firstly introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure in his

book entitled Course in General Linguistic (1915), while the term semiotics

introduced by Carles Sander Pierce. The term of Semiotics or semiology refers to

the same knowledge field. It fells to the study of sign. According to Cann (1993)

in Apriliantono (2012), Semiotics is primarily a mode of analysis that seeks to

understand how signperform or convey meaning in context. Berger (2004) in

Apriliantono (2012) stated that semiotics is the study of sign, which roots from

early work of Swiss linguist Saussure (1857-1913), and American philosopher

Peirce (1839-1914).

Term semiology is a science that studies the life of signs within society is

conceivable; it would be a part of social psychology and consequently of general

psychology; I shall call it semiology' from Greek semefon 'sign' (Saussure ,

1915:16). In addition, Saussure explained the combination of a concept and a

sound image is called “a sign”. In other words, the term sign is formed by

signifier and signified. Signifier is a sound image and signified is a concept of

representation. The Saussure’s sign model can be seen in Figure 2.1:

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Figure 2.1 The Saussure’s sign model (1915:66)

For instance, when the word “lion” is mentioned, it produces a concept of

image ‘lion’: a wild animal which has four legs and canine teeth. Saussure called

the word as signifier or a sound image and the concept of an image as signified.

The combination of signifier and signified produces sign, the image of ‘lion’.

The bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (Saussure,

1915:67). It means that there is no natural meaning between signifier and

signified. Based on the example, there is no reason why the signifier ‘lion’

produce the signified ‘lion: a wild animal which has four legs and canine teeth’.

Other languages have different signifier to designate the same signified. For

instance, “singa” in Indonesian has a same signified with “lion” in English. It is

the result of convention or cultural aggreement to determine a name of an object.

The term Semiotics is introduced by Charles Sander Pierce. The concept of

Semiotics which was introduced by Pierce was difference from Saussure. As we

know that Saussure divided sign system into two elements called signifier and

signified. Pierce divided semiotics study in three components. They are

representamen (sign), object (semiotics object), and interpretant. The sign is

something that presenting to the object. Interpretant is a concept of the sign. In

other words, interpretant is how someone interprets a particular meaning which is

included in an object. The Pierce semiotics design can be seen in Figure 2.2:
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Sign

Interpretant Object

Figure 2.2 Pierce’s triangle model

A sign its self is divided into three elements. According to Pierce in Cobley

(2001) stated that The most basic classes of signs in Peirce’s menagerie are icons,

indices, and symbols. The explanation of each element are, as follows:

1. An icon is a sign that interrelates with its semiotic object by virtue of some
resemblance or similarity with it, such as a map and the territory it maps (a
photograph of Churchill is an icon of the original item).
2. An index is a sign that interrelates with its semiotic object through some actual
or physical or imagined causal connection.
3. One of the best qualifications of Peirce’s symbol is a linguistic sign whose
interrelation with its semiotic object is conventional.

Pierce’s semiotics elements in Cobley (2001:31)

The study of sign was developed by Roland Barthes who intoduced second-

order semiological system and metalanguage as myth signification that related to

cultural aspect.

2.2 Myth Signification

The study of sign is not limited to interpreting objects. The sign also relates to

cultural aspect which stated by Saussure that the sign needs a convetion or cultural

aggreement. The sign study was developed by Roland Barthes who related the

signification system to the myth study as cultural aspect. Roland Barthes divided
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the signification system in two levels, they are primary signification and

secondary signification. The table of Barthes’ theory can be seen in Table 2.1:

1. Signifier 2. Signified
Languange
3. Sign
MYTH
I. SIGNIFIER II. SIGNIFIED
III. SIGN

Table 2.1 Signification System (Barthes, 1957: 113)

Thus, we can understand the signification system is divided into two levels.

Level I is the combination of signifier (a sound image) and signified (a concept of

representation). This level can be understood as denotative meaning same as

Saussure’s theory. This level is also called primary signification. Level II is a

connotative meaning which is found by Barthes. This level is the representation of

feelings or ideas relates to Level I. In the next level, the signification system

relates to a culture in a particular society, called myth. In other words, Barthes’s

theory includes the society’s culture or people’ assumption to his signification

theory. Because of the idea or feeling of the object signification is consumed by a

lot of people and become inherently culture within the society, it makes

connotative meaning become denotative again in the myth level. This level is

called as secondary signification. Table 2.2 is semiotics study according to

Barthes in Storey (2009: 119) through primary signification and secondary

signification.
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Primary signification 1. Signifier 2. Signified

Denotation 3. Sign
Secondary signification I. SIGNIFIER II. SIGNIFIED
Connotation III. SIGN

Table 2.2 The primary signification and secondary signification

Signifier and signified in primary signification produce denotation meaning,

same as Saussure’s theory. Then, Barthes continued presenting the signification

system into connotation meaning by through secondary signification. The

secondary signification has myth signification which relates to the cultural aspect.

Myth signification is explained by Barthes (1957:107), as follows:

Myth is a system of communication, that it is a message. This allows one to perceive

that myth cannot possibly be an object, a concept, or an idea; it is a mode of
signification, a form. Later, we shall have to assign to this form historical limits,
condition of use, and reintroduce society into it: we must nevertheless first describe
it as a form.

Based on the explanation, we can conclude that myth signfication is

secondary level of signification, called second-order semiological system. It is a

relation between the signification of the object to the cultural aspect in a particular

society. Barthes (1957:113) explained that myth is second-order system, as

follows:

In myth, we find again the tri-dimcnsional pattern which I have just described: the
signifier, the signified and the sign. But myth is a peculiar system, in that it is
constructed from a semiological chain which existed before it: it is a second-order
semiological system.
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Barthes called myth signification as metalanguage, because it is a second

language. In the myth level, the sign is not analyzed to the representation or

description of the object its self, but it is analyzed through global sign. The global

sign means the representation of cultural phenomena that happens on the world.

2.3 Popular Culture

The term popular culture is formed by two words, ‘popular’ and ‘culture’.

Williams (1983) in Storey (2009: 5) stated four meanings of ‘popular’: well liked

by many people, inferior kinds of work, work deliberately setting out to win

favour with the people, culture actually made by the people for themselves. The

term ‘culture’ is formulated into three definitions as follows:

1. First, culture can be used to refer to ‘a general proccess of intelectual, spiritual,

and aesthetic development.
2. A second use of the word ‘culture’ might be to suggest ‘a particular way of life,
whether of a people, a period or a group’.
3. The third meaning – culture as signifying practices – would allows us to speak
of soap opera, pop music, and comics, as examples of culture.

Willliams (1983) in Storey (2009: 1-2)

The popular culture is relation between a particular history and society.

Storey (2009: 5-12) formulated the term of popular culture into six definitions as

follows:
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1. An obvious starting point in any attempt to define popular culture is to say that
popular culture is simply culture that is widely favoured or well liked by many
people.
2. A second way of defining popular culture is to suggest that it is the culture that is
left over after we have decided what is high culture...This definition of popular
culture is often supported by claims that popular culture is mass-produced
commercial culture, whereas high culture is the result of an individual act of
creation.
3. A third way of defining popular culture is as ‘mass culture’...The first point that
those who refer to popular culture as mass culture want to establish is that
popular culture is a hopelessly commercial culture.
4. A fourth definition contends that popular culture is the culture that originates
from ‘the people’...This is popular culture as folk culture: a culture of the people
for the people.
5. A fifth definition of popular culture, then, is one that draws on the political
analysis of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, particularly on his development
of the concept of hegemony...In general terms, those looking at popular culture
from the perspective of hegemony theory tend to see it as a terrain of ideological
struggle between dominant and subordinate classes, dominant and subordinate
cultures.
6. A sixth definition of popular culture is one informed by recent thinking around
the debate on postmodernism...The main point to insist on here is the claim that
postmodern culture is a culture that no longer recognizes the distinction between
high and popular culture.

In conclusion, the term popular culture is simply culture that is liked by

people. The popular culture is expanded by commercial or media which created

for people’ pleasure. The popular culture is related to the Semiotics study.

Semiotics analysis is often the most common form in which structuralist criticism

is encountered. It is a practice that has taken the firmest hold in approaches to

popular culture, when the ‘texts’ considered are less likely to be canonical literary

works than advertisements, Hollywood movies, television programmes, women’s

magazines and so on (Green and Lebihan, 1996:77). Based on the explanation

previously, the Semiotics study and popular culture can be combined in analyzing

phenomena or issues. The popular culture is also related to the political,

economic, and social issues. In this research, the researcher is going to discuss the

meme comics as popular culture phenomenon nowadays. In the discussion, the

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researcher will relate the Semiotics as the sign study and hegemony issues which

are contained in the meme comics in lehugak.com.

2.4 Hegemony

Hall (2009) in Storey (2009: 11) stated that popular culture is a contested site

for political constructions of ‘the people’ and their relation to ‘the power bloc’.

The term of power refers to the theory of hegemony. Hegemony is one of the

popular culture aspect. Storey (2009: 11) stated that there is another aspect of

popular culture that is suggested by hegemony theory. It means that hegemony is

the product of popular culture.

Gramsci (2009: 75) in Storey (2009: 10) uses the term ‘hegemony’ to refer to

the way in which dominant groups in society, through a process of ‘intellectual

and moral leadership, seek to win the consent of subordinate groups in society.

Hegemony involves a specific kind of consensus: a social group seeks to present

its own particular interests as the general interests of the society as a whole. In this

sense, the concept is used to suggest a society in which, despite oppression and

exploitation, there is a high degree of consensus, a large measure of social

stability; a society in which subordinate groups and classes appear to actively

support and subscribe to values, ideals, objectives, cultural and political meanings,

which bind them to, and ‘incorporate’ them into, the prevailing structures of

power (Storey, 2009: 79-80).

In conclusion, the term hegemony is the product of popular culture. The key

of the concept of hegemony is the dominant group who “leads” the subordinate

group in society through intellectual and moral leadership. The hegemony issues

can be found in the content of meme comics.

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2.5 Meme Comics

Etymologically, The term meme is from Greek word mimises means

‘immitation’. The term meme is introduced by Ricard Dawkins in his book

entitled The Selfish Gene (1967) that explained meme is like gen, something

which multiplies its self. Gen multiplies by biological proccess, while meme

multiplies by cultural proccess. It means that meme is the result of idea, concept,

and creativity a little amount of people which expands in many cultures.

Meme comics phenomenon is firstly introduced by a website 9GAG. This

website is established by five young men from Hongkong in 2008. They are Ray

Chan, Chris Chan, Marco Fung, Brian Yu and Derek Chan. This website presents

many kind of photos, pictures, and videos. The pictures that are uploaded in this

website are called ‘meme comics’. The uploaded meme comics in 9GAG are very

interesting, it makes the netizens share the meme comics in internet and social

media. The example of popular meme comics that are uploaded in 9GAG can be

seen as follows:

Figure 2.3 Yao Ming

This is the face of Yao Ming, the ex-basketball player from China with an

epic expresion. Commonly, this meme comics is used to make a joke.

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Figure 2.4 Troll Face

This meme is used in annoyancing or bothering actions, so it makes the

readers get angry and laughing at the same time.

Figure 2.5 Forever Alone

This meme represents an ironic loneliness situation. Commonly, this meme is

used to represent how lonely someone who has no a boy/girl friend.

Figure 2.6 Challenge Accepted

This meme represents someone who is ready to receive a challange.

Commonly, he/she is successful in executing a challange.

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Figure 2.7 Poker Face

This meme indicates someone who has flat expression and shows no specific

emotion, because he/she does not know how to react a thing or situation.

The example of meme comics previously are classified as the expression or

face memes. The aim of those meme comics are to express the emotion through a

particular situation. There are many kinds of meme comics classifications based

on the aims of creators, such as; sense of humor, expression of emotion, irony,

and illustration of phenomena. The creators combine elements of art, creatifity,

message, and even critic in meme comics.

2.6 Lehugak.com

This website is a blog created by Mas Sugeng at 2016. This website presents

many kind of historical informations, mystery informations, knowledges, and

meme comics. The example of posts in this website are: Pembuktian Roh

Manusia Tidak Mati, Melainkan Kembali Ke Alam Semesta; Misteri Sejarah Ilmu

Bela Diri Yang Sudah Ada Di Mesir Kuno Sejak 50.000 Tahun Lalu; 55 Meme

Lucu Generasi 90-1n, Kalau Tertawa Masa Kecil Anda Sungguh Bahagia; etc.

There are many kinds of meme comics categories in this website, such as:

humorous memes, irony memes, and memes that illustrate the pop-culture

phenomena including the hegemony issues. The researcher found 12 meme

comics that contain hegemony issues in this website.