Sociological Approach Review of Related Theories
14 effort for adapting their self and customizing their society in order to make it
developed progressively Damono, 1979. Thus, the novel can be regarded as an attempt to recreate the social world of human relations with the society, the
environment, politics, the state, the economy, which is also a matter for sociology. It can be concluded that sociology can provide helpful explanations about
literature, and even can be said that without sociology, understanding literature would be incomplete Faruk, 1994.
The sociological approach is applied in this study because the purpose of it is to improve understanding of the literature in relation to the society, explaining
that the fiction is not contrary to the reality, in this case, literature is constructed imaginatively, but the imaginative framework cannot be understood outside the
empirical framework. Furthermore, literature is not merely an individual phenomenon but also a social phenomenon. It is “a social institution, using as its
medium language, a social creation. They are conventions and norm which could have arisen only in society” Wellek Warren, 1964, p. 94.
The sociological approach in literature observes art and literature as an integral part of the society. Thus, as Lucaks 1962 says, the sociological approach
in literature concerned with aspects of documentary literature, which means, essentially it is concrete social phenomena, occur around us every day, can be
observed, photographed, and documented. The phenomenon is re-elected by the author as a new discourse with the creative process observation, analysis,
interpretation, reflection, imagination, and evaluation in the form of literary works.
15 Literature presents a picture of life, and life itself is mostly shaped by
social reality. In this sense, it includes the relationships of society with people, between the events that occur in ones mind. Therefore, looking at literature as a
depiction of the world and human life is the main criteria imposed on the literary work. However, Wellek and Warren 1964 remind that the literary work is to
express life, but it is wrong to regard it as expressed complete life. This is due to the phenomenon of social life found in the literature may not be intentional
written by the author, or because of the nature of literature itself, which is never directly revealed social phenomenon, but indirectly, which the author himself may
not know. Literary works can also reflect and express aspects that are sometimes less obvious in the society.