CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Literature as a property of language is a verbal work of art that explores human desires or ideas. It expands people’s mind and quickens people’s sense of
life. Literature does not only provide pleasure and knowledge, but it also conveys ideas and truth. Literature in Hudson’s An Introduction to the Study of Literature
is mentioned that: Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have
experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us. It is
thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language 1958: 10
The quotation above means that literary work is a depiction of reality that conveys the truth. It can be said that literature is a kind of medium that has social function.
Literary work does not only represent the truth about reality in the outside world, but literary work also has its own meaning. Widdoson in his book
Literature said that literature can be a new innovation that gives information or
insights about social life. The English literary term ‘the novel’ it can be argued retains traces of all
these senses: ‘a new story’, new innovating, strange, perhaps even making strange or defamiliarising and offering news-information or insights-about
social life 1999:136.
Literary work is presented both as imagination that has its own meaning and as a medium of social life. Literary work uses an element such as “setting” to deliver
the portrayal of reality and its own meaning. Setting is one of the intrinsic 1
elements of a literary work, refers to the description of place, the time and social condition where the action of character takes place. Abrams in the book A
Glossary of Literary Terms mentioned that “the overall setting of a narrative or
dramatic work is the general locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which its action occurs 1981:192.” The setting includes the society in a certain
time. Within the society, the setting encloses norm, rule or belief which guides its people. Society’s circumstances present the phenomenon that happens there.
When human being lives with others in the society, it is possible that some problems occur, so the representation of phenomenon happening in society in a
certain time can be seen through setting. The examples are the issues in the twentieth and twenty first century French society that have close relation with the
issues in the eighteenth century French society. Here, literature can play the role in revealing back that humans can learn about it.
In the twentieth and twenty first centuries, many controversial issues happened in society in the world. One of them is a controversial issue concerning
religion in France. The March 2004 issue of World Press Review VOL. 51, No. 3 stated that French Parliament prohibited wearing religious garb for students in
public primary and secondary school. In the National Assembly, an information-gathering commission under
veteran politician Jean-Louis Debré studied the “question of religious symbols in the schools.”
The commission’s report came down categorically: The “reaffirmation of the principle of secularism must take
the form of legislative action explicitly to ban the visible wearing of any sign of religious or political allegiance on school property,” both public
schools and private schools operating under contract with the National Education system. http:www.worldpress.orgEurope1800.cfmdown
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The previous years, in the 1980s and 1990s, restriction to wear any religious symbols and political terms for students in France has already existed. This facts
show that the people in France are not totally free to have freedom of religion. Religious controversy does not only happen in the twentieth or twenty first
centuries. Basically, in the previous centuries it had occurred in France, such as in the eighteenth century. During the sixteenth century there was a controversy
among religions, thus the agreement of religious worship was signed. In the late seventeenth century the agreement was broken; religious persecution occurred
until the beginning of the eighteenth century and continued to be a problem. Those problems can clearly be viewed through Stevenson’s Travel with a Donkey
in the Cevennes. In this novel Travel with a Donkey in the Cevennes, Stevenson focuses on
the condition of French society with the rule and belief. It tells that somebody who lives there must follow the rule and belief in which Catholic is a major
religion of the society. The right about freedom of religion for everybody is questionable. Stevenson is attracted to discuss deeper and connect it with the
condition of French society in the eighteenth century. “Louis XIV ruled as an absolute monarch. Service of God and respect for king are united. King is absolute
lord Williams, 1972: 173, 174.” In the appearance Travel with a Donkey in the Cevennes represents the
peasants, clergy and French society’s view toward religion in the eighteenth century. Peasants undergo poverty and clergy undergo prosperous life. The French
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society’s view toward religion presents the religious fanaticism and religious tolerance. It becomes the surface representation of the novel.
This study focuses on Stevenson’s insights and ideas represented through the setting of French society in the eighteenth century, especially the
representation of French society’s view toward religion in the eighteenth century. Religious tolerance is more prominent in the representation. To get the
representation of depth behind the religious tolerance, religious fanaticism is opposed with religious tolerance. The binary opposite aims to show off religious
tolerance and gets the deeper meaning. Religious fanaticism looks like having a religion with its pure faith. In fact, religious fanaticism presents that having a
religion is an obligation that forces someone to do it. Certainly having a religion is individual right. Thus, tolerance for other people is required. The prominent of
religious tolerance shows that religious tolerance reveals freedom of religion. The essence behind the representation is revealed.
B. Problem Formulation
Kategori