2. Feminist Literary Criticism Theory
Feminist literary criticism is literary criticism informed by feminist theory or by the politics of feminism more broadly. According to Djajanegara, feminist
literary criticism began from desire of feminists to analyze the women writers’ works in the past and to show the women image in men writers’ works who
presented the women as a creator that in some ways are oppressed, misinterpreted, and underestimated by dominant patriarchal tradition.
9
Meanwhile, Feminist literary criticism according to Annette Kolodny in Djayanegara is:
“It involves exposing the sexual stereotyping of women, in both our literature and our literary criticism and, as well, demonstrating the
inadequacy of established critical schools and methods to deal fairly or sensitively with work written by women”.
10
C. Research Findings
1. Data Description
In this chapter, the writer tabulates the corpus data of feminism thoughts and the ways the female characters shape the feminism thoughts
collected from the novel Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood by Fatima Mernissi. The writer divides the data into two tables.
9
Soenarti Djayanegara, Kritik Sastra Feminis: Sebuah Pengantar Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama, 2000, p. 27.
10
Soenarti Djayanegara, 2000, Op.Cit. p. 19.
Table 1 Feminism Thoughts in
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood
No Feminism Thoughts
Female Characters
Corpus Page
1 Gender
Equality Yasmina
“Mecca was a space where behavior was strictly codified. The
moment you stepped inside, you were bound by many laws and
regulations. People who entered Mecca had to be pure: they had to
perform purification rituals, and refrain from lying, cheating, and
doing harmful deeds. The city belonged to Allah and you had to
obey his S
hari’a, or sacred law, if you entered his territory. The
same thing applied to a harem when it was a house belonging to
a man. No other men could enter
it without the owner’s permission, and when they did, they had to
obey his rules. A harem was about private
space, and the rules regulating it. It did not need walls. Once you
knew what was forbidden, you carried
the harem
within, inscribed under your forehead
and under your skin.” “Everyone is equal. Allah said
so. His prophet preached the same.”
“Maybe their rules are ruthless because they are not made by
women… The moment women get smart and start asking that very
question, instead of dutifully cooking and washing dishes all
the time, they will find a way to 61
61
26
63
change the rules and turn the whole planet upside down.”
2 Freedom
Yasmina
Habiba “And hugging and snuggling your
husband is wonderful... I am so happy your generation will not
have to share husbands anymore.
” “When you happen to be trapped
powerless behind walls, stuck in a dead-end harem, you dream of
escape. And magic flourishes when you spell out that dream and
make the frontiers vanish. Dreams can
change your
life, and
eventually the world. Liberation starts with images dancing in your
little head, and you can translate those images into words. And
words cost nothing.” “The main thing for the powerless
is to have a dream. True, a dream alone, without the bargaining
power to go with it, doesn’t transform the world or make the
wall vanish, but it does help you
keep a hold of dignity.” 34
113
214
Table 2 The Ways of Female Characters Shape the Feminism Thoughts
in Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood
No Feminism
Thoughts Female
Characters Corpus
Page
1 Storytelling
Mother You have to learn to scream
and protest, just the way you learned to walk and talk...
“As soon as she entered King Schahriar’s bedroom, she
started telling him such a marvelous story, which she
9
16
Fatima Mernissi
cleverly left hanging at a most suspenseful
part that
he couldn’t bear to part with her
at dawn. So he let her live until the next night, so she could
finish her tale. But on the second night, she told him
another wonderful story, which she was again far from
finishing when dawn arrived, and the King who had to let
her live again. The same thing happened the next night, and
the next, for a thousand nights, which is almost three years,
until the King was unable to imagine living without her. By
then, they already had two children, and after a thousand
and one nights, he renounced his terrible habit of chopping
off women’s heads.” “I wanted to learn how to talk
in the night.” 19
2 Education
Mother “Of course you will be happy
You will be a modern educated lady. You will realize the
nationalist’s dreams. You will learn foreign languages, have
a passport, and speak like
religious authority…as
illiterate and
bound by
tradition as I am; I have managed to squeeze some
happiness out of this dammed life. That is why I don’t want
you to focus on barriers and frontiers all the time. I want
you to concentrate on fun and laughter and happiness. That is
a
good project
for an
ambitious lady. ”
“Who is benefitting from a harem? What good can I do for
our country, sitting here a 64
200
prisoner in this courtyard? Why are we deprived of
education? Who created the harem, and for what? Can
anyone explain that to me?
” 3
Theater Chama
Habiba “Squeezed between the silence
of the Sahara Desert in the south the furious waves of the
Atlantic Ocean in the West and
the Christian
invaders’ aggression from the North
Moroccans recoiled
in defensive attitudes, while all
the other Muslim nations have sailed away into modernity.
Women
have advanced
everywhere except here. We are a museum. We should make
tourists pay a fee at the gates of Tangier”
“The main thing for the powerless is to have a dream.
True, a dream alone, without the bargaining power to go
with it, doesn’t transform the world or make the wall vanish,
but it does help you keep a
hold of dignity.” “Dignity is to have a dream, a
strong one, which gives you a vision, a world where you have
a place, where whatever it is you have to contribute makes a
difference. You are in harem where the world does not need
you. You are in harem when what you can contribute does
not make a difference. You are in harem when what you do is
useless. You are in harem when the planet swirls around, with
you buried up to your neck in scorn and neglect. Only one
128
214
214
person can
change that
situation and make the planet go around the other way, and
that is you. If you stand up against scorn, and dream of a
different world, the planet’s direction will be altered. But
what you need to avoid at all costs, is to let the scorn around
you get inside. When a woman starts thinking she is nothing,
the little sparrows cry. Who can defend them on the terrace,
if no one has the vision of a
world without slingshots?” “When you happen to be
trapped powerless
behind walls, stuck in a dead-end
harem, you dream of escape. And magic flourishes when you
spell out that dream and make the frontiers vanish. Dreams
can change your life, and eventually
the world.
Liberation starts with images dancing in your little head, and
you can translate those images in words. And words cost
nothing” 114
2. Data Analysis
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