How character education is projected through literary works? A textual analysis of metaphors and prophetic ethics in Tegalan songs and poems

Scrutinizing literary works such as song lyrics and poems can be beneficial for instilling character education since they may contain sublime messages from prophetic ethics. However, such messages are oftentimes conveyed using metaphors, which cannot be interpreted literally from the words used in the literary works. Hence, the present study aims to scrutinize the metaphorical expressions used in Tegalan songs and poems as a form of Javanese literary works and analyze the prophetic ethics contained in the texts, depicting character education. A qualitative research design involves the process of analyzing, classifying, interpreting, and drawing conclusions. The metaphors were identified and classified. The language used to convey the prophetic ethics were also analyzed to explain the depiction of character values within them. The findings demonstrate that metaphors were used to express the author’s intentions aesthetically, emphasizing the good practices of undergoing life, such as resilience, patience, and totality in living life. Furthermore, some prophetic values were realized in the forms of humanistic, liberalization, and transcendental ethics, described in the lyrics of the poem and song Tegalan. This paper can be used as a reference for those aiming to instill character education through the use of local literary works.