2.2 Literature
Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, literature is used to describe anything from creative writing to more
technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and
nonfiction. The word literature has different meanings depending on who is using it and in what context. It could be applied broadly to mean any symbolic
record, encompassing everything from images and sculptures to letters. In a more narrow sense the term could mean only text composed of letters, or other
examples of symbolic written language. An even more narrow interpretation is that text have a physical form, such as on paper or some other portable form, to
the exclusion of inscriptions or digital media.
Literature is a body of written works related by subject‐matter e.g. the literature of computing, by language or place of origin e.g. Russian literature, or
by prevailing cultural standards of merit. In this last sense, ‘literature’ is taken to include oral, dramatic, and broadcast compositions that may not have been
published in written form but which have been or deserve to be preserved. Since the 19th century, the broader sense of literature as a totality of written or printed
works has given way to more exclusive definitions based on criteria of imaginative, creative, or artistic value, usually related to a works absence of
factual or practical reference. Until the mid‐20th century, many kinds of non‐fictional writing in philosophy, history, biography, criticism, topography,
science, and politics were counted as literature; implicit in this broader usage is a
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definition of literature as that body of works which, deserves to be preserved as part of the current reproduction of meanings within a given culture. This sense
seems more tenable than the later attempts to divide literature as creative, imaginative, fictional, or non‐practical from factual writings or practically
effective works of propaganda, rhetoric, or didactic writing.
In analyzing Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, feminist theory and gender theory in analyzing the problems will be used. Because gender and
feminism have close relation in literary works. Feminist theory is the extension of feminism into theoretical, or philosophical discourse, it aims to understand the
nature of gender inequality. It examines womens social roles and lived experience, and feminist politics in a variety of fields, such as anthropology and
sociology, communication, psychoanalysis, economics, literary criticism, education, and philosophy. Wilson In his book 1966 : 82 said that: Feminism
theory based on the idea that women have a different relationship with nature and environment to men. While generally providing a critique of social relations,
much of feminist theory also focuses on analyzing gender inequality and the promotion of womens rights, interests, and issues. Themes explored in feminism
include art history and contemporary art, aesthetics, discrimination, stereotyping, objectification especially sexual objectification, oppression, and patriarchy.
And gender is an important area of study in many disciplines, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, contemporary art
history, anthropology, sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis. These disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how and why they study
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gender. For instance in anthropology, sociology and psychology, gender is often studied as a practice, whereas in cultural studies representations of gender are
more often examined. Gender studies is also a discipline in itself, an interdisciplinary area of study that incorporates methods and approaches from a
wide range of disciplines.
Elaine Showalter describes the development of Feminist theory as having a number of phases. The first she calls feminist critique, where the feminist
reader examines the ideologies behind literary phenomena. The second Showalter calls Gynocritics - where the woman is producer of textual meaning including
the psychodynamics of female creativity, linguistics and the problem of a female language, the trajectory of the individual or collective female literary career and
literary history. The last phase she calls gender theory , where the ideological inscription and the literary effects of the sex or gender system are explored.
Wellek and Warren in their Theory of Literature proposed two approaches in analyzing literary works, they are intrinsic approach and extrinsic approach.
Intrinsic approach is an approach which analyzes the literary work based on the text and the structural points of literary work which comprises the characters, plot,
setting, theme, style, and point of view. Extrinsic approach is an approach which analyzes the literary work and its connection with other knowledge and external
factors such as biography, history, culture, psychology, sociology, etc.
In analyzing The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, extrinsic approach which focuses on sociology and culture will be used. Where in social
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construct results that in women not having the same rights, opportunities, or privileges as men and men’s superiority has also been supported by the culture.
And according to M. H. Abrams in his book The Mirror and the Lamp in 1953 quoted from www.uwec.eduranowlanintr_crit_rdg_lit_081400.htm
divides critical theory of literature into four kinds, they are mimetic theory, pragmatic theory, expressive theory, and objective theory.
Mimetic theory the theory of imitation defines literature in relation to life, seeing it as a way of reproducing or recreating the experiences of man’s life
in words. Abrams 1976:8-9 stated that mimetic theory is the most primitive aesthetic approach. The idea was developed through Plato’s vision that the literary
work itself cannot represent the real life, but is only the imitation of what happened in our surroundings. Aristotle, on the other hand, declined Plato’s
argument by stated that literary work as an art aims to purify the emotion the Latin word ‘catharsis’.
Pragmatic theory relates literary work to its readers. It is called pragmatic because literature may give the practical result to its readers, and is sometimes
also called affective since literature may give emotional effect to its readers. Pragmatic theory is used to reveal the functions of literary work in the middle of
society, the spread, and the development. Pragmatic theory deals with the competence of the readers.
Expressive theory focuses on the relation between the literary work and its writer. This kind of theory believes that literary work is produced through the
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expression and the emotion of its writer which are influenced by the background and the experience of the writer.
Objective theory focuses on the literary work itself, its language, forms, and devices. This kinds of critical theory of literature, makes sense of the meaning
and significance of literature by focusing upon the literary text in deliberate abstraction from its relations to its writer, its readers, and surrounding social-
historical and political-ideological contexts; the aim here is to understand the literary work. Each work is to be judged by its own criteria for internal
consistency, its intrinsic rather than extrinsic qualities.
In this thesis, also will be use expressive theory to discuss Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie. Because in expressive theory believes that a
literary work is produced through the expression and the emotion of the playwright which are influenced by hisher background and experiences.
2.3 Play
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