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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Literary work is a relationship between expression and idea Sumardjo and Saini, 1991:13. It means that a literary work has a strong relation with human
being and his feeling. This relation expresses the life aspects. Literary works reflect the reality and human
‘s life complexity. According to Sami 1988:8 ―Literary works have two important aspects; they are substance and form. The
substance is human or the author ‘s life experience and the form is everything
about the way the author tells the story, including language he uses ‖. Literary
works are not only about the human ‘s expression but also about how the author
expresses their feelings, in the aspect of sociological and historical views. There are three main genres of literary works, such as drama, fiction, and
poetry. The classification of these genres is based on the characteristics found in each type of the literary text. Novel, novelette, and short story are classified into
fiction since they have similarities in the text presentation, i.e. narrative. Memoirs of a Geisha written by Arthur Golden is classified into novel as it is presented in
narrative form. Arthur Golden‘s Memoirs of a Geisha is a novel dealing with a lot of
information about Geisha ‘s life before and after the World War II. This novel
describes Chiyo, a young Japanese girl who lived around 1930s, where she met many obstacles in her life until she began her study at Geisha School in Gion.
2 Little Chiyo and her sister are sold by her own parent, sent to Gion that is very far
away from her birthplace Yoroido. Geisha is a traditional female Japanese entertainer whose skills include
performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance. There remains some confusion about the nature of the geisha profession. Geisha is
regarded as prostitute by many non-Japanese. However, that was wrong because a legitimate geisha does not engage in being paid sex with clients. Her purpose is to
entertain her customers by dancing, reciting verse, playing musical instruments, or engaging in light conversation. Although Geisha engagements may include
flirting with men and playful innuendos; but, clients know that nothing more can be expected Dolby, 1983:20.
Based on the previous explanation, the writer decides to discuss how Chiyo maintain geisha culture. Like the traditional culture, there is a danger for
this culture to get extinct because of time and lack of new generation to maintain it. Geisha culture is almost extinct, because it is hard to learn, one needs to spend
a lot of time to learn and study about geisha. It happens on the main character of this novel. When she tried to become a geisha, Chiyo learns the hardship of
becoming a Geisha and also all kinds of Japanese culture, especially many unique traditions of Geisha.
Finally the writer chooses ―Geisha Culture Maintenance in Arthur Golden‘s Memoirs of a Geisha‖ as the title of this thesis.
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1.2 Statements of the Problems