Radical Cultural Feminism Theory of Radical Feminism

Nin’s works generally tell a story about how women fight toward sexism in that era. The explosion of the feminist movement in 1960s gave feminist perspectives on Nin’s works. She had a special appeal to feminists yet Nin disassociated herself from the political movement at the moment. Noel Riley Fitch, the author of Nin’s biography book, noted that Nin’s works has changed many women in the world and gives different perspectives about women’s roles in the society. “She would talk in very Lawrencian language about following your own desires and needs, living freely,” Fitch said. “Women still adore her. They say she changed their lives.” news.usc.edu,August 9, 2016. Moreover, Fitch also quoted a statement toward Nin’s works from Kate Millet, the author of Sexual Politics, “the first real portrait of the artists as a woman.” Ladders to Fire is one of Anais Nin’s novels which has different attitude about women’s sexual life in that era. This novel becomes the representation of how women fight toward sexism in the society. In this first volume of the series of Cities of the Interior, Nin introduces all the characters who are Lilian, Djuna, Helen, Sabina and Jay, the male character. As Gunther Stuhlmann also states in the foreword of Ladders to Fire that all characters are presented fully in the first volume, Ladders to Fire. They are developed later in the succeeding volumes. As each book came out, however, it was received as if it were an independent novel Nin, 1946: ix. Ladders to Fire is divided into two parts, the first part is This Hunger and continued with Bread and the Wafer. There are two main characters who are Lillian and Djuna who struggle to pursue their passion and natural desire. They PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI fight over old custom where bisexualism and lesbianism are still considered taboo. Lillian is a woman who is very adventurous in her love life. She has several relationship with men and once builds a marriage but it does not work. Lillian’s sexual interest is not only towards men, but also women. They are Djuna, Helen, and Sabina whom Lillian is attracted to. As they also have interest with woman, they share affection and passion with Lillian. These four women then try to reach their own happiness by pursuing their natural desire and freedom. With their effort, they make that it is not impossible to have sexual attraction both in male and female. They show that human, specifically woman, should be free to experiment their sexual interests without being limited by society’s assumption.

B. Approach of the Study

In conducting the analysis towardLadders to Fire, the writer uses Feminist Literary Criticism approach since this research focuses on the struggle of the women characters to break patriarchy’s gender stereotype. Maggie Humm states that feminist literary criticism rejects traditional standards of criticism and of literary history. Feminists use literary criticism to help them deconstruct the politics of patriarchy as it is represented in language 1995: 153. According to the previous statements, it can be concluded that feminist literary criticism concerns on how women struggle to pursue and criticize gender issue through literature. Moreover, Humm also states that the first and major achievement of feminist criticism was thus to highlight gender streotyping as an important feature of literary form 1995: 8. By this statement, the basic goal of feminist literary PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI