CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study Literature is
simply another way we can experience the world around us through our imagination. Literary work is a
result of human being thought which
tells about life that deals with feeling, ideas, experience, ambition, imagination, and problems. It presents to give
an enjoyment and also broader the
reader’s general knowledge. Literature is identical with life; it touches all sides of human’s life, and portrays a real
life which is represented by authors through
their creativity in producing literary work such prose, poetry, and drama. It can be seen that literature isa true
picture or reflection of human’s life.
It will be interesting to criticize literary work, because it covers the universal experience of human being. Thus, by
criticizing literary work we can get
broader knowledge in several side of human’s life (Jones, 1968: 1).
In criticizing literary works, we need basic
tool, knowledge, and understanding about
literary criticism suchas theory and approach. Peck and Coyle (1986:150) define that "Literary
criticism is the analysis, interpretation and evaluation of literary works". It
does not mean that literary criticism is to find the fault in literary works. One of
literary work that can be criticized is novel.
It portrays complicated problems about real life. Novel, do not, however, present a documentary picture of life.
Alongside the fact that novels look at society,
the other major characteristic of the genre is that novels tell a story (Peck and Coyle, 1984: 102).
Talking
about literature, we remember about women, these creatures always become an interesting object to talk
about, whether in the real life or world
of literature. Women are always assumed as beautiful, weak, and calm.
These assumptions also bring them
to be inferior, subordinate, and second sex creature. While, men are identical with
superior, strong, and dominate.
Furthermore, black women also
become a prime object of discrimination racially
and sexually. Thus, recently we find the rising of black feminist movement in response to never ending
discrimination they faced. In addition, black
feminism becomes an explosive issue in field of literature. Black feminism essentially argues that sexism and
racism are inextricable from one another.
Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore or minimize race can perpetuate
racism and thereby contribute to the oppression
of many people, including women. Black feminists argue that the liberation of black women entails freedom for
all people, since it would require the
end of racism, sexism, and class oppression. One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's
Womanism (http://www.answers.com/topic/black-feminism).
Women of today are still being
called upon to stretch across the gap of male ignorance and to educate men as to our
existence and our needs. This is an old
and primary tool of all oppressors to keep the oppressed occupied with the master's concerns. Now we hear it is the task
of women of Color to educate white
women-in the face of tremendous resistance-as to our existence, our differences, and our relative roles in our
joint survival. This is a diversion of energies
and a tragic repetition of racistpatriarchal thought. In light of these facts, the women decided to forge their own
movement, the Black Feminist Movement.
The Black Feminist Movement was formed to address the ways sexism, racism, and classism influences the
lives of black women whose needs were
ignored by the black men of the Black Liberation Movement and white women in the Women's Movement. The movement
has spawned several important
organizations which are committed to the struggle against all forms of oppression. They have created a unique model
for cross-class organization in which
the needs of the poor are not usurped by the needs of the middle-class and the wealthy.
Black feminism emerged as a
response to feminist theories and white (bourgeois)
women’s movements that omitted serious examination of racism, and the general concern of black women and
other women of color. Black feminist
perspectives are varied, and differ in their acknowledgment of multiple forms of oppression. Some perspectives
emphasize the nonhierarchical interaction
between race, class, and gender oppression, and argue that each equally contributes to black women plight.
Others focus on the importance of understanding
black women’s oppression as an ideology that emanates from a patriarchal culture. Overall, black feminist
theorists have significantly contributed
to general feminist and nationalist scholarship by calling for an examination of the interlocking forms of
oppression (e.g., race, class, and gender).
Black feminist thought demonstrates Black women's emerging power as agents of knowledge. By portraying
African-American women as self- defined,
self-reliant individuals confronting race, gender, and class oppression, Afro centric feminist thought speaks to the
importance that oppression, Afro centric
feminist thought speaks to the importance that knowledge plays in empowering oppressed people. One
distinguishing feature of Black feminist thought is its insistence that both the
changed consciousness of individuals and the social transformation of political and
economic institutions constitute essential
ingredients for social change. New knowledge is important for both dimensions to change. (Collins, 1990:
221).Oppression refers to several distinct structures, namely, exploitation,
marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence.
Feminist theory now includes an
analysis of the way race, class, sexuality, as well as gender influence women's lives. The
women's studies departments of many
prominent universities and colleges now have courses, which focus on black women's writings and history, in the
United States and in other countries.
However, in the black community,
the movement has not been as effective. The S of current black liberation movements still
fails to adequately address issues which
affect black women. Awareness of sexism has increased within the black academic community but the popular culture
(especially that which primarily involves
black men, such as the rap music industry) continues to be extremely sexist and misogynist.
Considering the discussion above, the
researcher would like to relate it with
a great novel entitled Incidents in the Life of a slave girl by Harriet Jacobs.
It was published in 1861, the
year the Civil War began and tells about black women’s enslavement, degradation, and sexual
exploitation. It offers a unique
perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. She uses the pen name "Linda
Brent", and it is considered a work of feminist literature. Jacobs's primary motive
in writing Incidentswas to address white
women of the North on behalf of thousands of "Slave mothers that are still in bondage" in the South. She
wanted to indict the southern patriarchy for its sexual tyranny over black women like
herself. In a story that merges the conventions
of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel, Harriet Jacobs describes her efforts to fight
off the advances of her master, her eventual
liaison with another white man (the father of two of her children), and her ultimately successful strugglefor freedom.
Jacobs' account of her experiences, and
her search for her own voice, prefigure the literary and ideological concerns of generations
ofAfrican-American women writers to come.
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