CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Literature is imaginative process as stated by
Welleck and Warren via Wiyatmi (2006:
14). Literature must be able to produce an aesthetic creation and try to transmit the needs of human life
and be a spot to aspire the ideas, thoughts,
and feelings of the author about human life.
Biography, social life, psychological aspect,
and also cultureof the author are the
elements which can influence howhis literary work is. The authors have these elements. It is not very surprising
if we look at and find out the similarities
between literary works;however, the object of the works is human. In general, humans in the world have
some similar characteristics.
The diverse views on life, made eachauthor has
varied opinion about something. In this
case, this variation can present many ideas in creating the literary works. However, human life as a focus
on literary works, may produce not only
similar perception, but also influence of each other. The study which learns about how to see, analyze, and know the
similarities or the influences among the
national literary works is Comparative Literary Study. The study of Comparative Literature can construct them
through comprehensive and comparative
process.
Comparative Literature is one of literary
academic disciplines that combine the
similar literary works written in different languages which connected with more than one culture.
According to Texte, Comparative Literature
is limited to the study of a factual/ historical relationship between two national literatures, as caused by various
social norms.
Comparative study of Literature isa
cross-cultural study. The study concerns
the literary relation based on period or
area. In period aspect, Comparative
study of literature can compare the literary works from two or more different period. In area aspect, it
compares the literary works based on literary
geography (Endraswara, 2011: 128).
Comparative Literature is the study which is
used to look for the similarities
between literary works;however, the purpose of comparative study is to hold the aesthetic concepts in
literary works and to estimate the quality
of literary works and aesthetic in literature (Endraswara, 2011: 129).
Comparative Literature can be grouped into
four categories: (1)Themes and Motives,
(2)Genre, (3)Movementand Trends, (4)Interdisciplinary Aspects. Theme and motifs categories are
concerned with product of mind, characters,
plot, settings, episode, and also paraphrase. Genre category is about form and style. Movement and trends also
includes the generation of literature.
Interdisciplinary aspects refer to relations among literary works to science, religion, and art.
In this analysis, the writer compares two
literary works applies thematic analysis
which is focused on the theme as object of the study. Theme is an aspect of human experience which the author
wishes to express in literary works.
Theme indicates the object as the focus of literary work, and as the main meaning of the work itself. Theme also
includes the definition of motif inside.
Both of them are often combined. As theme, according to Goethe, motif is a human spirit phenomenon repeatedly
appeared(Weisstein, 1973: 138). In this
case, the study which concerned with theme is thematic study.
Thematic study, named Thematology consists of:
ideas of mind, personality theme, plot,
episode and setting, and phrases (Kasim, 1966: 65).
Ideas of mind is called abstract
ideas,according to A. Owen Aldridge (1969: 5). Personality theme is focused on the
characters, especially for the protagonist
character. Plot, episode, and setting of the story influence the literary comparison. Phrases often appearin
literary works. All of the elements
above can be analyzed.
Thematic analysis is one of the most commonly
used methods of qualitative analysis.
Thematic analysis moves beyond counting explicit words or phrases and focus on identifying and
describing both implicit and explicit ideas
within the data, that is, themes. The method does not preclude theoritical development. However, its primary goal is to
describe and understand how people feel,
think, and behave within a particular context relative to a specific research question.
In this way, applied thematic analysis is
similar to phenomenology, which seeks to
understand the meanings that people give to their lived experiences and social reality (Schutz, 1962: 59).
Thematic analysis can be made on novel.
According to Oxford Dictionary, a novel is a
long written story. Novel provides the
complete story, starting from development of theme, plot, settings, characters, style, and point ofview.
Novel tells about human life. So, novel
is one of literary works which can be compared.
The study analyzes two novels in order to see
the similarities or the differences of
certain elements in theme of the novels with the different language and culture. The two novels are: The
Color Purple by Alice Walker and Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el-Saadawi.
Novel The Color Purple is an American literary
work, written by Alice Walker. She is
the youngest child in her black family in the south. She graduates as a valedictorian from high school,
securing a space at Spelman, the all
black women’s college in Atlanta. She transfers to Sarah Lawrence College and participates in an exchange
program to Africa. She began writing about
black women living in America, seeing first hand the difficulties faced by the people. Because her youth was so filled
with the persecution and separation,
Walker finds herself involved heavily in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Walker is one of the
earliest and most celebrated contemporary
African-American writer (Walker, 1983).
The Color Purple is published in 1982 to
instant critical acclaim and popular
success. It wins, among the numerous awards, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983, and was quickly made into an
Oscar-winning film in 1985 by Steven
Spielberg. Walker is also the recipient of numerous other prestigious awards and honors. One critic claims
that“Alice Walker’s best writing is like balm: soothing, restorative, and earthy....Walker’s
lovely prose rarely falters” (Walker,
1983).
Novel Woman at Point Zero is an Arabic
literary work, written by Nawal El
Saadawi. Nawal El Saadawi is a Egypt doctor. She has been known in the world as a novelist and woman writer who writes
more about the Rights of woman, named as
feminist writer, with international reputation. She likes to write about status, phychology, and woman
sexuality. She has open-minded related
to the equality ofwoman (El-Saadawi, 1983).
Novel
Woman at Point Zero is based on the true story. The story tells about a woman who got death sentence because
of injuring and killing man.
Firdaus, as a main characters in thisnovel, is
shown as a powerful woman who can face
the problems in her life. Firdaus is a prostitude woman who has worked in prostitution since she is young. Her
family and the social environment make
her forced become a commercial sex worker. During her life, she is always abused by men,
eitherphysically or mentally. Firdaus wants to get the freedom as a woman. Finally, after
she can not stand the men’s abuse to
her, she decides to kill him and as a prisoner, she is proud of getting punishment and for her, it is a way to gain
the freedom.
Both of novels are talking about women abuse.
In The Color Purple, women abuse
emphasizes on segregation also abuse for women from black community. In Women at Point Zero, women are
really the victims of men’s abuse.
Abuse is a pattern of coercive and/ or violent
behaviors used by a partner to gain
power and control over the other person, and it goes far beyond physical injury. Abusive actions one person
makes towards another are generally
intended to control the victim, or to make the victim submit to the power of that abuser; however, it is against
the notion of equality of human worth to
say that one person should beable to control another against the victim's will. There are many types of abuse,
including: verbal abuse, mental abuse,
physical abuse, neglect, and hate crimes (Patricelli, 2005).
In this case, the writer focuses on physical
abuse. Physical Abuseoccurs when one
person uses physical pain or threat of physical force to intimidate another person. Actual physical abuse may
involve simple slaps or pushes, or it
may involve a full on physical beating complete with punching, kicking, hair pulling, scratching, and real physical
damage sufficient in some cases to require
hospitalization. In particularly violent instances, people can die from the injuries they sustain while being
physically abused. It is abusive whether bruises or physical damage occur or not. It
may involve the mere threat of physical
violence if the victim does not comply with the wishes of the abuser, and still be considered physical abuse.
(Patricelli, 2005) In these two novels,
The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Woman at Point Zero by Nawal el-Saadawi, there are many
abuses inside the story. But, the
analysis points at the physical abuse inside these novels. Mainly, people who are abused are women. The term ‘woman
abuse’ refers to various forms of
violence, abuse, mistreatment, and neglect that women experience in their intimate, kin or dependent relationships.
These include current, dissolving or past
relationships with husbands, common-law partners, lovers, dating partners, family members and caregivers.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar