CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study Many literary critics have enormously enriched
and invigorated the study of literary
works, but there is still not conventional definition concerning ‘what literature’ is. There are many views on
literature,but none can claim the correct or incorrect view on it. That is the fact that
makes the study of literature both difficult
and fascinating.
Literature can not in fact be
‘objectively’ defined. It leaves the definition of literature up to how somebody decides to
read, not the nature of what is written (Eagleton,
1983: 8). Perhaps literature is definable not according to whether it is fictional or ‘imaginative’, but because it
uses language in peculiar ways.
Jonee, Jr. (1969: 1) stated that
literature is simply another way we can experience
the world around us through our imagination. Literature, in its broadest sense, includes all written material.
He divided this all written material into
two different groups. The first is the Literature of Knowledgethat is functioned to teach. In this group he placed
the writings that mainly present information,
such as scientific articles, dictionaries, directories, instructional manuals, travel folders, school textbooks,
history books, etc. The second is Literature
of Power that is functioned to move. In this group he placedthe writings that mainly entertain, such as
novels, poems, plays, magazines, etc. He concluded then with the words “imaginative
literature which aims to arouse thoughts
and feelings”. So, when we use the term ‘literature’, we will be talking about written material that deals with
thoughts andfeelings.
The text of literary work is a
source of endless speculation and argument, as critics compete to offer the most
persuasive reading. Initially it might appear that all criticisms are purely subjective, as
if every reader will see the literary work
differently, but a response is also conditioned by the social context within which the literary work is read (Peck &
Coyle, 1986: 150).
In general, there are three
genres of literature. They are prose, poetry, and drama. Novel that is a written literary
product which has the beautiful values and gives some fun and sadness for everyone who
reads belongs to prose genre. It is a long
work with a great amount of detail in every page (Peck & Coyle, 1986: 103).
Novel often presents a
documentary picture of life.It looks at the people in society. As the presentation of documentary
picture of life, many people have conducted
some researches on novel by using variousliterary theories, including feminist theory.
Feminism, the root of feminist
criticism was not inaugurated until the late th century. The term of feminist theory is an
invention of the academic branch of mid
–and late twentieth –century feminist movement. It refers to generating systematic ideas that define women's place in
society and culture, including the depiction
of women (Borgatta, 1992: 695). Betty Friedan in her book Feminine Mystique stated that feminist criticism is
part of the broader new women's movement
initiated in early 1960s (Leitch, 1944: 307) as Abram's statement that as a self-aware and concerted approach to
literature, feminist criticism is not inaugurated
until late in the 1960s (1985: 233). Ithas begun from the reality that traditional cannon and person’s view in
literary works still have been differentiated,
especially in describing women and men’s character in the literary work. Sometimes the description is no equal
and it is still influenced by patriarchal
view and gender discrimination.
According to Patrick, feminist
criticism is the literary theory that criticizes the literary works through the examination of
female points of view, concerns, and
values (http://hub.cap.clemson.edu/~sparks/flc/flit.crit.html). Feminist theory
was blown up to deconstruct the
opposition of men or women and the oppositions associated with it in the history of western
culture. Feminist theory tries to champion
the identity of women, demands rights for women, and promotes women’s writings as women’s experience
representations (http://www.wikipedia.com/feminist.php).
Otherwise feminists undertake a theoretical
critique of heterosexual matrix that organizes identity and culture in terms of the opposition between men and women.
Peck & Coyle stated that Feminist criticism might seem only to be
concerned with demonstrating that
literature is sexist in the portrayal of women, or with showing how texts reveal the injustices of a male society
wherewomen are regarded as inferior...
But radical feminist criticism seeks not merely to describe the way things are but also to challenge the
status quo(1986: 152).
Among the great novels that
challenge the status quo, one novel should be mentioned here as the best presentation of
documentary picture of life, the first rate,
fast-paced that restores some lost history tomodern reader (Rocky Mountain News), the vivid and compelling re-creation of
the dark age (Reginald Rose, the writer
of Twelve Angry Men), and the rich history (Orlando Sentinel). It is Pope Joan novel. It is based on the life of one of
the most fascinating, extraordinary women
in western history. Pope Joan is a controversial figure of historical record, a woman who diguished as a man, rose to rule
Christianity in the th century as the first and only woman who sat on the throne of
St. Peter; the highest throne in Christendom
(http://www.popejoan.com/). This compelling novel animates the legend with a portrait of an unforgettable
woman who struggles against restrictions
her soul cannot accept.
Brilliant and talented, young
Joan rebelled againstthe medieval social strictures forbidding women to learn to read
and write. When her older brother was
killed during a Viking attack, Joan took up hiscloak and identity, went to the monastery of Fulda, and was initiated into the
brotherhood in his place. As brother John
Anglicus, Joan distinguished herself as a great Christian scholar. Eventually she was drawn to Rome, where she became
enmeshed ina dangerous web of love, passion,
and politics. Triumphing over appalling odds, she finally attained the highest throne in Christendom.
Pope Joan is a sweeping
historical set against the turbulent events of the th century; the Saracen sack of St. Peter's,
the famous fire in the Borgo that destroyed
over three-quarters of the Vatican, the battle of Fontenoy, arguably the bloodiest and the most terrible of medieval
conflicts. The novel is a fascinating vivid
record of what life was really like during the so-called Dark Ages, as master work of suspense and passion that has as its
centeran unforgettable woman, reminiscent
of Dorothea in George Eliot's Middlemarch, Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet letter, Jean
Auel's Ayla, Jane Austen's Emma, and other
heroines who struggle against restrictions their souls will not accept (http://www.popejoan.com/).
The novel was written by Donna
Woolfolk Cross who began teaching in the
English department at an upstate New York college in 1973. Her books include two nonfiction works on language. Pope
Joan, her first novel, is the result of
seven years of research. The book has become an international best seller and has been a major motion picture.
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