Theoretical Framework REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter is divided into three parts namely, subject matter, approach, and procedure. In subject matter, the writer discusses the novel The Zahir, as the focus of the study. In the approach, the writer mentions the approaches for analyzing the novel. In procedure, the writer mentions the steps in writing this thesis and inserts some sources that help me in analyzing the study.

3.1 Subject Matter

The subject of the study is Paulo Coelho’s novel entitled The Zahir. The novel was first launched in Brazil on April 2005 and on the following months internationally . According to a source from the internet written by Margaret Jull Cost, forty different publishers signed contracts for rights at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2004 to Coelhos new novel, The Zahir. It was originally written in Portuguese and translated into 44 different languages. It is two hundred and ninety eight pages long and divided into four parts “The Zahir”. Based on the novel, the title, The Zahir, comes from a tale by Jorge Louis Borges. He is one of Coelho’s most admired authors, published in his book The Aleph 1949. According to Borges, the idea of The Zahir comes from the Islamic tradition, with an estimate origin in the 18 th century. In Arabic, Zahir means visible, present, and unable to go unnoticed. In other words, it is something or somebody that starts becoming a central attention of someone’s life and ends up being the only thing PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI that can be thought of. Paulo Coelho is a Brazilian author. He was born in 1947 in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Before dedicating completely to literature, the narrator worked as theatre director and actor, lyricist, and journalist. “His other literary works are among other Brida 1990, The Valkyries 1992, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept 1994, the compilation of texts Phrases 1995, The Fifth Mountain 1996, Manual of a Warrior of Light 1997, Veronica Decides to Die 1998, The Devil and Miss Prym 2000, the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for Parents, Children, and Grandchildren 2001, Eleven Minutes 2003, and The Zahir 2005” “The Zahir”. The Zahir is told from a first-person perspective. The main character, which in this study is called as narrator, is a bestselling novelist who writes about spirituality and once went on pilgrimage along the road to Santiago. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent. One day, he is suddenly left by his wife. She leaves without any messages or clues. She is last seen with a young man who is later known that his name is Mikhail, Esther’s translator when she was in Kazakhstan. Was Esther kidnapped, killed, or did she simply abandon a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesnt have any answers. During his wife’s disappearance, the narrator has a girlfriend. Subsequently, he becomes obsessed to understand the reason of his wife’s desertion. One day, Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to take him to his wife if the time is right. Mikhail introduces the narrator to a global underground tribe of spiritual seekers who resist, somewhat vaguely, conventional ways of living. His search for her takes him from France to Spain, Croatia and, eventually, the beautiful landscape of Central Asia, Kazakhstan. All his efforts bring Esther to him. He finally reunites with his wife with new way of thinking.

3.2 Approach of the Study

As mentioned in the previous chapter, Rohrberger and Woods offered five approaches that could be employed in analyzing literary work. They were formalist approach, biographical approach, socio-cultural approach, mythopoeic approach, and psychological approach Rohrberger and Woods, Jr. 6-13. Among them, the psychological approach was chosen to be the right approach. It discussed human motivation, personality, and behavior patterns of a person in literary work that built his or her characters. The psychological approach supported the writer to reveal the narrator’s motivation in finding and bringing his wife back. It could be realized, since, as proposed by Rohrberger and Woods, the psychological approach involves various theories of psychology to explain the character’s personality in a story. Each character’s behavior could be referred to a psychology of human being.

3.3 Procedure

The method in gathering the data in this study was library research. The writer mostly read and took notes from books, encyclopedia, articles and any references that support the analysis in the study. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI