Background of the Study

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the Study

Literature and society are two things that are difficult to be separated because literature is a social creation. Literature is one of the works of art which had been in human civilization for hundreds of years ago. Its appearance is a social cultural reality. The relationship between literature and society can be described by using the phrase “literature is an expression of society” Wellek and Warren, 1977: 15. Wellek and Warren also emphasize it in their book The Theory of Literature 1977: 15 that literature imitates the reality of life, “literature represents ‘life’ and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, even though the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also object of literary imitation”. Therefore, most of the elements in a literary work have social aspects such as language, tradition, religion, mindset and etcetera. Literary works can also represent social problems. These social problems build the story in the literary work. So literary work can be observed through social science. Society can be the inspiration for a writer in creating his works. All social activities such as culture, economic, politic and industry can be the reason why the writer writes his works. Social activities also create the kind of novel genre. One of the genres which develop quickly in America is journalism. Of course, it is caused by the fact that in the real life, American journalisme develops quickly. According to Kurnia 2003: 246, America is a country that has the freedom of information which is arranged by the Freedom of Information Act. Kurnia’s opinion is supported by Stevenson in American Life and Institution 1998: 96 that the development of journalism in America is also caused by some factors such as the tradition of reading newspapers, “Reading the Sunday paper is an american tradition, for some people an alternative to going to church”. Furthermore Stevenson states the using of newspapers to balance political opinion “Many newspaper also use syndicated columnist as a way of balancing political opinion”. Stevenson also quotes the Court that goverment which can not censor the press, “The goverment’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the goverment”. One of the American writers who writes the novel with the genre of journalism is John Grisham. The Pelican Brief 1992 is one of his novels which has journalism genre, especially the investigative journalism. The novel contains theme of the small person against a big organization and corruption in a high office White House. The novel also tells scandals, corruptions case, crime cases and etcetera which become the topics of investigative journalism. It is a part of journalism which does not only cover and record an event that will be be published into the news, but also conducts something more than that. The investigative reporter usually looks for data and facts deeply related to a case which is not visible or intentionally hidden from public. The writer is interested in conducting the research about investigative journalism elements in the novel of The Pelican Brief because the investigative journalism is an interesting topic. The investigative journalism will discuss other topics outside journalism, for example politic, law, goverment and so on.

1.2. Scope of the Study