26
B. Approach of the Study
The approach that the writer thinks is appropriate for this study is the Postcolonialism approach. In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader by Bill Ashcroft,
Garet Griffiths, and Helen Tiffin the post-colonial is described as Post-colonial theory involves discussion about experience of various
kinds: migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race, gender, place, and responses to the influential master
discourses of imperial Europe such as history, philosophy and linguistics, and the fundamental experiences of speaking and writing by which all
these come into being Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin, 1995: 2.
It means that the post-colonial theory pays attention to the issues of migration, slavery, suppression, resistance, representation, difference, race,
gender, and other issues that are related to the imperial Europe that has influenced the life of people being colonized.
Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffins also ar gue that ―post-colonial studies are
based in the ‗historical fact‘ of European colonialism Ashcroft, Griffiths, and Tiffin,
1995: 2,‖ which means that the post-colonial studies deals with the European colonialism and its impacts to its colonizers.
A part of postcolonial studies concerns on the struggle of the indigenous people against the white occupations. Thus, the struggle of the indigenous people
is seen through the writings of the indigenous writers as Elleke Boehmer states in Colonial Postcolonial Literature
that Indigenous writers rightly remain wary of other implications of the
postcolonial. For they see themselves as still-colonized, always invaded, never free of a history of white occupation Boehmer, 2005: 221.
Here, it can be seen that the struggle of the indigenous people is that they still find themselves remain colonized and under the white occupation and it is all
expressed through their writings. A postcolonial study according to the definition of post-colonial theory in
Encyclopedia of Contemporary Literary Theory also deals with any study that concerns to examine the culture of former colonies of the European empires and
its relation to the rest of the world. It also deals with the issues of racism and exploitation Makaryk, 1993: 155.
Hans Bertens, in Literary Theory: The Basics stated the post-colonial theorists focuses on the victims of the Eurocentric thought, racism, politics, and
exploitation Bertens, 2008: 159. In other words, the post-colonial study deals with the result of the European colonization or in one way or another in which the
people are victimized by the European thoughts in many ways also became the victims of the racism as well as exploited. Bertens also stated that the post-
colonial theorists agree that their focus in on the colonial, oppression, resistance to colonization, and other themes that what becomes the central of these interests are
issues of race, indigeneity, ethnicity, language, gender, identity, class, and power Bertens, 2008: 162.
In short, postcolonialism focuses on the effects of the colonization to its colonized. The effects as the results of the colonization have raised the issues of
resistance, suppression, oppression, race, gender, class, etc. Postcolonialism as an approach, thus examines these issues revealed in the literary works. As in this