Background of Study INTRODUCTION

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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

A. Background of Study

Literature is simply ways of increasing our experience, of going place, of doing things in our imagination that might never has a chance to do otherwise. Literature is an art from whose medium is language, oral, and written. It differs from three ways, they are first, it is concentrated and meaningful, and second it is that purpose is not simply to explain, argue, or make a point but rather to give sense of pleasure in discovery of new experience and the last it demands intense concentration from readers. 1 Literary works come in several forms such as poetry, novel, drama, and film. About film, film is another alternative of media for narrating a story. Film is considered an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and powerful method for education or indoctrinating citizen. The task of film is to make those processes available for debate, whether they are deliberate or unconscious, individual or collective, human or institutional. In order that, film needs theory. During the 1990s the digital revolution in image technologies has had an impact on film theory in various ways. In the 1960s and 1970s, film theory took up residence in academe, importing concepts from established disciplines 1 Gloria Mason H, et. al. Literature and Ourselves, A Thematic Introduction For Readers and Writers Fourth Edition, Newyork: Longman 2003, p. 1. like psychoanalysis, gender studies, anthropology, literary theory, semiotics and linguistics. The aimed of film theory is to explores the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding films relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large. Moreover, the aimed of films bring important meaning and contain social message for the spectator. The messages that are brought by a film are frequently related to the social phenomenon based on the setting time. Feminism is a social movement that has had an enormous impact on film theory and criticism. The development of feminist criticism was influenced by second wave feminism and the development of womens studies within the academy. Feminist scholars began taking cues from the new theories arising from these movements to analyzing film. 2 After that feminist theory are rapidly developed. One of them is Feminist Film Theory Cinefeminism. Feminist Cinema is taken by feminists to be a cultural practice representing myths about women and femininity. 3 Feminism was popular in the early eighteenth century. Patriarchal value was dominantly at that year. The conditions of women were very difficult. They did not have many rights and were financially dependent on their husband or families. An average wife spent some 15 years either in a state of pregnancy or in nursing a child for the first year of its life. 4 Women were exploited domestically. 2 Anonymous, feminism, accessed on March 27, 2010. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiFeminist _Film_theory.htm 3 Anneke Smelik, Feminist Film Theory in Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink, eds, The Cinema Book, second edition London: British Film Institute, 1999, p. 491. 4 Anonymous, The Eighteenth Century, accessed on January 31, 2011 www.uk.filo.pluk- _history_8_htm They could not enter public field. Mother was nurturing and teaching their children – the activities which most of women do it in 18th century. Feminist have worked hard to advancement of women in social and politic field. They tried to liberate women from inferiority and minority by use film. Related to previous explanation, Sense and Sensibility Film is a film with the setting time at the early eighteenth century. Sense and Sensibility film is a 2008 British television serial adapted by the BBC from Jane Austens novel of the same name. Sense and Sensibility Film was written by Andrew Davies and directed by John Alexander. It was nominated for several Awards; BAFTA TV Awards Nominated Best Original Television Music - Martin Phipps, Costume Designers Guild Awards Nominated Outstanding Costume Design in a Miniseries or TV Movie - Michele Clapton, Primetime Emmy Awards Nominated Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie - Sean Bobbitt Nominated Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or Special Original Dramatic Score - Martin Phipps. 5 Sense and Sensibility is a story of two young sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood who face uncertain future. After their father died, they left Norland Park with their mother and their young sister. They are dismayed to learn that their inheritance consists of only £500 a year. John Dashwood, Mr. Dashwoods eldest son from his first marriage, inherits his fathers entire estate, under the laws of primogeniture. The conflict in this film is the two sister’s love entangled with their new status. Sense and sensibility film shows spectators from the point of 5 Anonymous, sense and sensibility 2008, accessed on March 17, 2010. http:en.wikipedia.orgwiki Sense_and_Sensibility_2008_TV_serial.htm view of the minority. It represented women as victims of social structure. This is the reason why the writer intends to examine the representation of women that is reflected through cinematography and narrative elements based on feminist film theory.

B. Focus of Study