CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Background of Analysis Woman is always
considered as the second class human being in society and weaker than man in any competitions. Some
people may state that a woman’s duty is
to serve her husband, to raise her children, and to do household works voluntarily. In any cases, the position of
woman is often being distinguished, for example
woman can’t do a certain job, but man can do it perfectly. This denotes obviously that in every aspect of life man is
active and stronger, therefore a lot of things
are believed that man can do but woman can’t.
In Adrienne Rich’s selected poems, I find that
women are not always under men’s control
and domination, they want to struggle for their right and make a better life even when there is no man.
Women rebel and escape as they are being
oppressed and burdened by patriarchal culture.
In discussing feminism, people will talk about
women who want to struggle and raise
their status and their right in family and society. Feminism struggles for the woman right that women are
discriminated in the patriarchal culture
that nullifies the human rights. Actually feminism is the movement against men’s control of women. Women must not be
treated as the second society and regarded
as inferior. It is true that feminism wants to rise the essences of woman that for centuries regarded as oppressed,
weak, sensitive, gloomy, passive, instable, materialist, and confine person.
The goal of feminism is the equality of woman
and man right, self-autonomy, self-consciousness, and anti sexual abusement.
Adrienne Rich is an American poet, essayist,
and dramatist. Rich is best known as a
key figure in feminist poetry. She is one of the most influential
selfidentified lesbian feminists of 20th-century America. During the decade of
the 1970s Adrienne Rich and her husband
Alfred Conrad were separated and divorced,
and she became increasingly involved in the feminist movement. Soon after their separation, Alfred Conrad
committed suicide (Miller and Greenberg, 1986:237).
As a poet, Rich continued to evolve into an
authority on free verse, growing even
more politically aggressive, especially as a very active feminist. She published Diving into the Wreck in 1973, and
was honored with the National Book Award
the following year. Many of the poems in this volume lament the failure of communication between men and women
on both a personal and cultural level
(Kostelanetz, 1982:91). The progressive collection exposed Rich’s frustration with her personal life and with
the situation of the world, staying true to her themes of social activism and the
empowerment of women. After her divorce,
Rich moved in with writer Michelle Cliff and has lived with her since 1976.
I choose Adrienne Rich’s selected poems
(Living in Sin, Rape, Novella, Aunt
Jennifer’s Tigers, I Dream I’m the Death of Orpheus and Diving into the Wreck) to be analyzed because the poems
portray the problems of gender inequality
which always happen either in a marriage or in just a relationship. I want to know further about feminism and what
makes women want to get free from men
domination and raise their status in society. Living in Sin tells about women’s rebellion in a marriage. It depicts a
woman’s growing dissatisfaction with her
lover and living situation. Rape
describes a woman who has been sexually
violated and forced to seek justice. Novella tells about the woman’s power when a husband and a wife quarrel in a
marriage. Woman is regarded as the key
of the house and there is no place for man except at home with his wife.
Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers is about women who want
to get free from men dominations. Women
are being burdened by the authority of her husband. I Dream
I’m the Death of Orpheus diminishes man’s power over woman and therefore
woman faces the authorities. Woman discovers and celebrates the consciousness of female powers. Diving into
the Wreck concerned with the relationships
between women and men and how the women become strong enough as being oppressed by the dominant role
of men in the society. Based on these, I
will analyze how feminism reflected in those poems.
Poem is a part of literature. Literature is
the written or printed matter of the art
or works of creative imagination that express the human idea, feeling, thought,
and attitude towards life. Basically,
literature comes from the Latin ‘littera’ which means the smallest element of alphabetical,
refers to written or printed words.
However, Kasim (2000:1) says that the term
“literature” has a wider meaning. It does
not only refer to the written, but also to the oral works. We must not forget that many civilizations have actually ever
produced oral traditions. In some societies,
the oral tradition of literature still exists, with many poems and stories designed exclusively for spoken delivery.
Therefore, generally literature can be defined
as the mirror of human life to tell stories, dramatize situations, and express emotions in the most beautiful and
artistic way, whether it is written or oral.
Yet, not all written materials should be classified into literature. Literature
must always be interesting; it must
always have a structure and an aesthetic purpose, a total coherence and effect (Wellek
and Warren, 1967:212).
Thus, literature is an artistic works which
can be divided into three genres, such
as prose, drama, and poetry. The word prose derives from the Latin word ‘prosa’, which is literally translated to
‘straightforward’. Prose includes novels, short stories, romances, parables, myths,
essays, magazines, encyclopedia, and so on.
Drama derives from the Greek word ‘dran’ which means ‘to do’ or ‘to act’.
Drama is performed on a stage. Poem derives
from the Greek word ‘poiema’ which means ‘something made or fashioned (in
words)’. This meaning applies to both
poetry and to poems. McRae (1998:1) says that poetry is words with a frame round them and also the words inside birthday
cards. It is quite difficult to make an
exact definition of poetry. Poetry is not just the creation of meaningful arrangement of words. Pardede (2009:9) in her
Material Teaching Understanding Poetry
says that one thing must be remembered, poetry can never be fully explained. It can be felt. There is no use to
talk about poetry if we don’t feel it.
There is always mystery about poetry. As a
result, we can conclude that poetry is a
spontaneous expression of feeling or imagination which has best words in the best order.
Poetry is one of the oldest genres in literary
history. The genre of poetry is sub-divided
into two major categories, they are narrative poetry and lyric poetry.
Narrative
poetry includes the epic long poem, the romance, and the ballad. It is a genre of poetry that tells a story. While,
lyric poetry is mainly concerned with the event, impression, or idea. It does not
attempt to tell a story, it portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions.
Stanford (2003:57) says that the poets
convey their feelings, experiences, pleasures, and sorrows in poetry.
1.2 The Statement of Problem During the
process of analysis, it is important to make the specification of problems that are going to be analyzed. I will
analyze feminism in Adrienne Rich’s
selected poems.
Alice Templeton has stated: “An important poet
of the post-World War II era, Rich writes highly crafted lyrics which explore socially relevant
topics—including feminism and
lesbianism—and criticize patriarchal societies and institutions. She also is an influential essayist whose prose
works have advanced theories of feminist
criticism. As an early proponent of societal changes that reflect the values and goals of women, Rich
articulates one of the most profound poetic
statements of the feminist movement in the United States.” In this thesis,
there are some problems that needed to answer further. So, the problem of the study can be formulated as
follow: 1. How is feminism reflected in
Adrienne Rich’s selected poems? 2. How
do the women struggle for their right in Adrienne Rich’s selected poems? 1.3 The Objective of Analysis The objectives
of the analysis are the statements about activities and objects that are going to be analyzed based on
the problem of analysis. There are two
objectives found in this analysis, they are: 1.
To show the feminism reflected in Adrienne Rich’s selected poems.
2. To
show the struggle of right reflected by women in Adrienne Rich’s selected poems.
1.4 The Scope of Analysis In order to avoid an
overlapping explanation, which will not be directed to the subject, this analysis should have a clear
scope. In this thesis, my analysis will be
focused on feminism in Adrienne Rich’s selected poems. I will analyze how far the idea of feminism occurs in Rich’s poems
and how she explains the idea of feminism
itself in order to struggle against patriarchal culture and woman’s stereotype.
1.5 The Significance of Analysis The analysis
of this thesis is expected to give significance to the readers generally and to me particularly, such as: 1. This thesis will show how feminism reflected
in Adrienne Rich’s selected poems.
2. This thesis will show the struggle of right
reflected by women in Adrienne Rich’s
selected poems.
3. This
thesis will give information and enrich the knowledge and understandings of English Department students
in studying feminism.
1.6 The Theoretical Approach Wellek and Warren
(1967:73,81,110) in their Theory of Literature mention two approaches in
analyzing literary works; they are intrinsic approach and extrinsic approach. Intrinsic approach is
an approach which analyzes literary work
based on the text and the elements such as characters, plot, setting, theme, style, and point of view. Extrinsic approach
is an approach which analyzes the literary
work from external factors such as biography, autobiography, history, psychology, and so on.
In analyzing this thesis, I use extrinsic
approach to learn about what affects the
poet’s mind and behavior such as autobiography and also the feminist movement at that time.
1.7 The Theoretical Review In analyzing this
thesis, I use mimetic and expressive theory. Mimetic theory believes that the poet wants to imitate
what happens in the reality and put it into
the poem. Expressive theory focuses on the expression or idea of the poet.
Adrienne
Rich’s selected poems deal with feminism. Feminist ideology is propounded in Rich’s poems. Feminism refers to
political, cultural, and economic movements
aimed at establishing greater rights and legal protections for women.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar