ABSTRAKPenelitian ini merupakan telaah terhadap konstruksi identitas berdasarkan subjektivitas dan agensi yang diberikan pada tokoh Lupus dalam empat buku serial Lupus yaitu 1) Interview with the Nyamuk, 2) Mission Muke Tebel, 3) Gone with the Gossip dan 4) The Lost Boy. Seral Lupus dipilih karena serial ini merupakan bacaan remaja yang digemari remaja dan mampu bertahan lama di pasaran. Fenomena ini menimbulkan pertanyaan perihal bagaimana identitas Lupus dibentuk, dan apa dan bagaimana keterkaitannya dengan kondisi sosial-budaya saat karya tersebut diciptakan.Pertanyaan tersebut dijawab melalui analisis teks dan kajian budaya. Analisis teks mengidentifikasi adanya posisi Lupus sebagai subjek dan agen pada tepian tiga konteks yaitu kelas sosial, etnisitas dan gender yang melahirkan posisi-antara bagi Lupus. Melalui posisi-posisi diantara kelas atas dan kelas bawah, tepian dunia global dan dunia lokal juga di tepian maskulinitas kelaki dewasa, Lupus dikembangnkan menjadi identitas yang mudah diterima oleh remaja kebanyakan dan disukai juga dikagumi karena keberhasilannya mendekati pusat-pusat konteks yang secara umum didambakan oleh para remaja. Keberhasilan Lupus bergerak sangat ditentukan oleh perilaku keberaksaraannya (kegemaran membaca dan menulis), kemampuan berbahasa Inggris dan perilaku cuek yang mengejawantah dalam sikap berani mencoba dan tak takut gagal.Walaupun demikian, Lupus sebagai teks bukanlah teks yang kritis karena kecenderungannya untuk mengukuhkan budaya dominan. Keberhasilan Lupus pada posisi antara itu dikontraskan dengan ketersisihan kelas bawah, etnis lokal, dan perempuan sehingga identitas Lupus mencuat di antara para remaja ini. Ngocol sebagai identitas Lupus yang menonjol memperkuat identitas Lupus di posisi antara, da, pada saat yang sama, menjadi identitas teks Lupus karena kengocolan yang hadir terutama menunjukan peran pencerita yang ngocol secara signofikan daripada peran tokoh Lupus. Ngocol sebagai kekhasan dan kekuatan Lupus dapat dikatakan sebagai identitas Lupus yang menjadi ideologi teks karena kehadiran ngocol dalam setiap peristiwa dalam Lupus diterima sebagai kewajaran walaupun pembacaan kritis terhadap kengocolan tersebut menunjukkan adanya relasi kuasa yang menyingkirkan kelompok tertentu. Ketersingkiran kelas bawah, etnis lokal dan perempuan sebagai pilihan tekstual demi kengocolan merupakan juga cerminan kondisi sosial politik masa itu. Identitas Lupus, di satu sisi, menampakkan adanya resistensi terhadap budaya dominannya tetapi, di sisi lain, ia merupakan pengukuhan terhadap budaya tersebut ketika pilihannya mencerminkan perilaku seperti umum ditemui dalam lingkungan sosialnya.

---

ABSTRACT

This is a study of identity which analyzes and interprets the construction of Lupus, an adolescent fictional character of the popular Lupus series. In particular, the sudy looks into the characters subjectivity and agency which forms the basis for the analysis of identity construction. Lupus is chosen for this study for the fact that Lupus is virtually the only popular fictional character in Indonesian Young Adult Literature for a period of more than two decades. This is the anchor for choosing this character for a study of identity construction as it poses questions as to how subjectivity and agency contribute to the construction of such a long lasting identity and how socio-cultural factors might have underpinned the construction. In addition, Lupus specific ngocol trademark character poses a set of different but related questions with regard to the role ngocol plays in Lupus identity construction and what meanings can be attributed to the role.

The questions were addressed by employing a textual analysis within the framework of narrative theory and cultural studies. For this purpose, Lupus texts were selected. The selected texts under investigation were four of the Lupus series namely 1) Interview with the Nyamuk, 2) Mission Muke Tebel, 3) Gone with the Gossipl and 4) The Lost Boy. These texts were selected for its evident relation to the context of their production as depicted in the parody titles, abd for the availability of linked short stories which should provide more possibilities for character exploration compared to individual short stories. Subjectivity and agency were traced in the narative events which constituted the linked short stories. Out of twenty two linked short stories, one hundred sixty one narrative events were analyzed and showed that Lupus subjectivity and agency were exercised from in-between positions available for Lupus in three contexts most frequently encountered. They were the contexts of the social class, ethnicity and gender. These in-between positions has enable Lupus to move fluidly along center of adulthood and childhood, upper social class and lower social class, global and local, and masculinity and femininity. These in-between positions empowered by his literacy behavior and English proficiency has established an empowering subjectivity and agency for a distinctive Lupus identity as a modern Jakarta adolescent treading his way to maturity by playing his subjectivity and agency along his chosen positions.

Ngocol as one of his more outstanding quality was disclosed as the identity of the text rather than the characters. This is evident from the narrative events which revealed ngocol framing the overall structure of the story and was enable by the capacity and agility of the narrator. However, ngocol also served as the means with which the adolescents appropriated their readings of the real world and challenged the authority of adults in the real world by ridiculing the world they lived in by way of ngocol behaviors. Ngocol is a way of laughing at the world but it is also a way of strengthening dominant positions. As in Lupus, ngocol is often a discriminate act which excludes specific groups as objects of ridicule. These exlusions indicate inner workings of the texts which reflects the living ideology of the society.