CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses background
of the study, statement of the problems,
objectives of the study, scopeand limitation, significance of the study, and definition of key terms.
1.1 Background of the Study Literature cannot in fact be
‘objective’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 it uses language
in peculiar ways. Based on Bressler’s book
(1994:9), that for centuries, many writers, literary historians, and others
have debated about literature but failed
to agree on a definition for this term. Some assume that literature is simply anything that
is written, thereby declaring a city telephone
book, a cook book, and road atlas to be literary works.
Derived from the Latin littera,
meaning “letter” the root meaning of literature
refers primarily to the written word and seems to support this board definition. However, such a definition
eliminates the important oral traditions on which much of our literature is based. Tosolve
this problem, others choose to define
literature as an art, thereby leaving open the question of its being written or
oral which is support as narrow or
specific definition, equating literature to works of the imagination or creative writing.
Toemphasize the imaginative qualities of literature, some critics prefer to use the
German word for literature, wortkunst, which
automatically implies that the imaginative and creative aspects of literature are essential components of the word
literature itself. By this definition, written works such as a telephone book or cook book
can no longer be considered literature,
being replaced by poetry, drama,fiction, or other imaginative writing.
According to Nurgiyantoro
(1995:322)literary works or fiction are written
by the author offer an ideal lifestyle and there is value that can apply in the
attitude, behavior of the character of
human being. The author creates the literary works not only using the skill and creation
ability, but also include to the vision, inspiration and struggle.
One of the literary works, novel,
often presents a documentary picture of life.
It looks at the peoplein society. As the presentation of documentary picture of life, many people have conducted some
researches on novel by using various literary
theories, such as by feminist theory.
In this research, the researcher
wants to analyze Laura Esquivel’s novel entitled
Like Water for Chocolate.Laura is a Mexican novelist making a noted contribution to Latin-American literature.She
often explores the relationship between
men and women in Mexico in her works. She is best known for this novel, Like Water for Chocolate(1990), an
imaginative and compelling combination
of novel and cookbook.
Like
water for chocolateis story about Elena De la Garza or Mama Elena, a mother with three daughters,
Gertrudis De la Garza, Rosoura De la Garza,
and the last is Josefita (Tita) De la Garza. In this novel, Mama Elena portrayed as leader, managing her daughters’
life even managing marriage for the children.
It brings a lot of reaction to each daughter. Such as Gertrudis, oldest sister, illegitimate daughter, she runs away
with a soldier whom she loved. In other
case, Tita, the youngest daughter of Mama Elena and, as such, because of a family tradition, she is forbidden to marry or
have children until after her mother's death.
Tita agreed to this situation until she falls in love with the dashing young Pedro. When Pedro learns that he cannotmarry
Tita, he agrees to have an engagement,
which is arranged by Mama Elena, with her older sister, Rosaura, in the hope that by marrying her, he will have
ample opportunities to spend with his real
lover.
In Laura Esquivel's novel Like
Water for Chocolatetradition is seen as both
oppressive and freeing. These two aspects of tradition are demonstrated most strongly through Tita. Mama Elena represents the
oppressive colonial tradition.
On the other hand, Nancha, the
family cook, and her recipes represent the native Mexican tradition that frees Tita.
From that short information, it
seems that Esquivel took more female character
than male character when female character in literature has seldom been main characters, and when women have
beencentral figure, they most often have been viewed in relation to men rather than as
themselves. Almost very female character
in literature is classified according to her biological, physical, or female role before any other: wefind out immediately
if she is married or single, a mother or
childless, attractive or unappealing (Eagleton, 1988:2). On the other hand, male character might be stereotyped
inrestricted sex roles, but they are not as often one dimension figures.
The researcher is interested in
finding a feminism aspect reflected in Laura
Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. It becomes something challenging for the researcher doing literarycriticism to know
the powerof woman as a head of family
and the resistance from the member of the family through literary work.
Talking about literary criticism,
we find that literature a product of culture
and become a media of transferring value to the society, one of them is feminist. Feminist criticism also reflected
the political goals of feminism in that authors
and texts were judge in accordance with how far they could be reconciled with feminist ideology. The image of women
schools of feministcritics’ adopts this
point of view and is particularlyconcerned with how women characters are represented in literature (Newton, 1988:263).
Feminism, the root of feminist criticism
was not inaugurated until the late nineteenth century. The term of feminist theory is an invention of the
academic branch of mid-and late century feminist
movement. It refers to generating systematic ideas that define women’s place in society and culture, including the
depiction of women (Borgotta, 1992:695).
It has begun from the reality that tradition canon 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 patriarchy view and
gender discrimination.
Under
the umbrella of “feminist criticism” there is a wide range of critical practices and approaches to literary
works, and each of these approaches has
its own supporters and detractors. Due tothe diverse array of feminist studies,
many feminist critics hesitate to posit
a general description of what, exactly, feminist
criticism is. It has been observed, however, that feminist criticism reflects the assorted theoretical positions of the
feminist movement. This school of theory looks at how aspects of our culture are
inherently patriarchal (male dominated).
In the other hand, there are
examples, both historical and current, of societies in which women hold dominant
positions in the family structure.
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