20 may affect some intrinsic elements such as character, plot, setting, etc in a novel.
A work is biographical if it covers all of a persons life. As such, biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a persons
life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Together, all biographical works form the genre known as biography, in literature,
film, and other forms of media.
B. Biographical Approach
As acknowledged before that biography is sedimentation of a person’s life which once may be transmitted into a work of sign system such as literature. It
means that novel as one of literary product might be the media of an author as the reflection of hisher life.
In this biographical analysis the writer uses the biography of Joanne Kathleen Rowling the author of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as an
instrument to analyze how far the author life does implicitly or explicitly influences the work.
As mentioned by Rene Wellek and Austen Warren that biographical approach is a systematic study of creativity process of an author in producing a
literary work.
5
Rene Wellek and Austen Warren notified the subject or creator as the source of literary work production. Muhammad Farhan wrote in his book that
“pengalaman dan perjalanan hidup pengarang dari masa kecil hingga dewasa menjadi bagian yang tak terpisahkan dari proses kreativitas untuk memproduksi
5
Prof. Dr. Nyoman Kutha Ratna, S.U, Teori, Metode, dan Teknik Penelitian Sastra Jogjakarta: Pustaka Pelajar, 2007, p.55
21 karya sastra”
6
from the statements mentioned above we can conclude that the meaning of literary work relatively the same with aims, intention, message and
even definite purposes of the author himself. In other word that the author’s biography is subordinating the literary work
A literature work may sometime identical with the author’s life story, that the author visualizes hisher experience in real life into a fiction. In accordance of
creativity process, the author may be classified into three: a The writer who writes immediately based on hisher own life. This may be
identified as true based story. The author used to describe the elements of the story and characterizes the characters based on the reality happened in hisher life.
b The writer who writes purely based on the power of imagination. The author use imaginative intrinsic elements in the story which are impossibly happen in
real life such as a fairy world, flying man, etc c The writer who writes based on the creativity in arranging the narrative
elements in the story. The author does not base the idea of the story on a definite fact or imagination only but the author creatively arrange and mix the idea from
any sources. Nevertheless, the process of creativity in writing stories generally based on the mixture of the facts mentioned.
7
As mentioned in Burhan Nurgiyantoro’s book “Teori Pengkajian Fiksi” that a literary work appears from the culture existence. An author as the person or
the doer of the culture has a special role in creating a literary work. In this case Burhan also implied that the subjectivism of an author life which contains of
6
M. Farhkan, Proposal Penelitian Bahasa dan Sastra Jakarta: Cella, 2007 p. 42
7
Prof. Dr. Nyoman Kutha Ratna, S.U 2007, Op.cit p. 56
22 attitude, faith and vision will contribute great effect on hisher work. It means that
the biographical elements of an author also denote the characteristics of the literary work created.
8
Biographical approach begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an authors life can
help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work. Hence, it often affords a practical method by which readers can better understand a text. However, a
biographical critic must be careful not to take the biographical facts of a writers life too far in criticizing the works of that writer. The biographical critic focuses
on explicating the literary work by using the insight provided by knowledge of the authors life. Biographical data should amplify the meaning of the text, not drown
it out with irrelevant material.
9
According to Teeuw, that in literary treasure this biographical approach has been discussed since first century, through Longinus’ writing, which
explained the role of author’s feeling and condition in creativity process of producing literature work.
Sometimes the reader with or without conscious attention imagine the characters or words spoken in the novel as the author’s own. Fowler stated as
quoted in A. Teeuw’s book that The reader creates an image of the author’s voice, and of other voices,
supplanting the discourse of the real author with a conventional voice comprehensible within the community’s shared expectations. We as
readers recognize clues in our language as it is deployed by the novelist at
8
Burhan Nurgiyantoro, Teori Pengkajian Fiksi Yogyakarta: Gadjah Mada University Press, 2002 p. 24
9
Anonymous, “Critical Approaches to Literature”, Introduction to Literature, Engl 200, Sec_ 21 - Fall 1998. Accessed on August 31, 2008. http:www.olemis.edu. P.1
23 the level of the implied author, narrator or “I” figure or character, and
reconstruct voices and personal roles for the participants in the dialogic structure of novel
10
H.A. Gomperts, an expert in literature said that : ”tidak ada teks yang tidak diceritakan oleh seorang manusia, dan manusia itulah penulis cerita itu,…tidak
ada sebuah teks pun tanpa titik ‘Aku’, yakni’Aku’ si penulis itu sendiri”
11
denote that an author as the human who creates and tell the story in a novel impossibly
deny the existence of ‘I’ himself using the author’s own perspective. Prof. Dr. Juhl in his book ‘Interpretation An Essay In The Philosophy Of
Literary Criticism’ 1980
12
mentions three statement: 1. There is a logical correlation between the statements about the meaning of a
work and statements about the author’s attention 2. The real author is committed to the propositions the work conveys. It means
that a literary work does not independently autonomous, exactly it has correlation between literature and life.
3. An intention was not stated explicitly by the author about the plan, motive or the plot of the work but through what the author meant by the words he used.
The use of biographical evidence need not involve intentions, because while it may be evidence of what the author intended, it may also be evidence of
the meaning of his words and the dramatic character of his utterance. Because the use of biographical evidence often permits the intentional inference, however,
evidence intrinsic to the text is preferred. The knowledge about the biographical
10
A. Teeuw, Sastra dan Ilmu Sastra pengantar teori sastra. Jakarta Pusat: PT. Dunia Pustaka Jaya, 1984 p. 172
11
ibid
12
Ibid. p. 176
24 author and his historical setting will influence the reader in the process of coming
to an understanding of the text. Through this biographical approach, the writer will analyze how does the
personal life of an author of Harry Potter and Philosopher’s Stone by analyzing her biography which possibly inserted in some parts of her novel. Joanne
Kathleen Rowling the woman author of twenty first century who becomes very famous after launching her first imaginative story of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher’s Stone. Joanne Kathleen Rowling as the poor single parent who lived under government and social fund has successfully published her first
masterpiece which wonderfully grabbed many bestseller positions after its launching throughout the world.
It is quite hard to rationalize that a jobless single mother could stand with her faith in writing a novel which no one could guarantee of its publishing. While
writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Joanne lived in desperate lowest point of her life. Her mother died after her divorce and she left alone with her
three months baby with no income because she’s just fired from her job. Nevertheless, by her conviction and hard work finally Harry Potter could bring
her to be the richest woman author in Britain. Through Joanne Kathleen Rowling life which the story is no less
magnificent than the fantastic Harry Potter story has invited the writer to see closer the correlation between an author life and its influence in her literary work.
25
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS
